


Blue is truly the heart

by Serenity_Searcher



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Character death in nightmares, F/F, POWER RANGERS AU, Ranger Combat, Strangers to Lovers, Vivid nightmares, more to be added later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-01-29 09:54:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12628422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenity_Searcher/pseuds/Serenity_Searcher
Summary: Clarke Griffin is the Blue Power Ranger, she has become the leader of her team as they defend the Polaris District. One day in a battle against their long term enemy the rangers suffered a massive defeat causing Clarke to take a step back, bearing the weight of the guilt..Lexa Woods volunteers at the Natblida dojo teaching young children various forms of martial arts for self defense. The day that the rangers lose everything Lexa stumbles across a power coin of her own. Her first mission is to find the surviving rangers and new ones to rebuild the team as the power of creation itself comes under threat from powerful enemies.Clarke and Lexa must fight their own demons, each other and countless monsters and they might just find something worth all of the pain and loss in the end.





	1. Prologue: Disaster at Hakeldama

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my attempt at Nano 2017 and an idea I've had for a while now. I figure if I post it and get comments it will help make the daunting task of 50k words in a month easier. Anyway so this is a Clexa Power Rangers fic based on the Power Rangers. The power rangers its based on is sort of a combination of the original 20 year old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the 2017 reboot. Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Just come back here for any new readers that this map has been added at a later point, since there was a slight confusion about the actual layout and names of the Region. The whole place is the Polaris region with Polis and Arkadia as large cities and Ton DC and Hakeldama as more large towns.

“It’s the Power Rangers, Lexa hurry up, come and see” Aden’s excited voice rang out over the martial arts class and the excited children all rushed to the doors and windows in time to see a massive blue Triceratops robot come storming past, guns blazing.

“Get away from the walls,” Lexa’s voice rang out over the excited kids forcing them to look at her. Green eyes flashed at the kids, “everyone get to the basement now” Lexa said pointing to the stairs and all but one of the kids rushed to follow their teacher’s instructions.

“Lexa I want to see the Power Rangers up close” Aden whined as Lexa grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the basement.

“You want to get out of their way, the battles they fight are too big for the likes of us.” Lexa said and as she looked back over her shoulder she saw the triceratops zord come flying back down the street. “I really hope they come through for us again” Lexa said worried that one day the rangers would come up against a challenge too big for even them.  
…

Inside the triceratops zord Clarke Griffin; the blue power ranger was thrown about the cockpit as her zord was tossed aside like a child’s toy. In her year as a ranger Clarke and the rest of the team had battled a lot of monsters but nothing had prepared them for this one; it seemed as it had been designed specifically for the battle against them.

It was easily the biggest monster they had ever faced, reaching the heights of the twenty story towers in Hakeldama, its face was similar to a skull with waxy skin, with dead pale eyes. The skin over its body was a mottled mixture of blue and red with four long and powerful arms each ending with a hole in each palm that had been shooting out energy blasts.

“Finn, Wells get those bottom arms pinned; I can’t get close from the front” Clarke yelled as she righted her zord frowning at the massive crack in her visor messing with her vision. She stared down the street and watched as the yellow saber tooth and red tyrannosaurus zords charged in from the sides, guns blazing as they took running leaps from opposite sides of the monster and latched their jaws onto the lower arms dragging them down and temporarily rendering them useless.

“Raven I’m going in again, straight down main street swing above me and blast it. I’m charging it.” Clarke said as she slammed her controls forward as her trusty triceratops zord started another charge.

“On it” Raven swooped down and opened up with the two main cannons on the pterodactyl firing energy blasts rapidly aiming for the joints of the two arms that weren’t weighed down by zords. The monster screamed as the lasers pummelled the thin, weak joints. The sustained gunfire from Raven kept the arms busy long enough for Clarke to ram her zord straight into the midsection toppling the giant monster, allowing Octavia to trample across in her black mastodon zord.

“The monster is in position Raven; blow the reactor.” Clarke yelled over the comms.  
“What about…?” Raven started to ask.

“Raven this is the last place we can stop it before it gets to Polis, please just do it.” Clarke said managing to keep her doubts out of her voice.

“Starting chain reaction, thirty seconds until it goes boom.” Raven said sadly.

“Now we find Sidney and stop her, that’s all that’s left today” Clarke said face set with grim determination. She couldn’t afford to think of the cost of today, stop the monster, kill Sidney and save the city. Clarke could worry about the rest later; if there was a later.

The explosion was the moment everything went wrong.

…

A distant explosion drew Lexa out of her concentration and made the heads of all the young children snap up to look. Aden was the first to make a break for the stairs to see what was happening, dodging Lexa’s desperate grab he dashed out of the shelter.

“Aden! Wait!” Lexa yelled as she scrambled after the excited boy. “It might not be safe yet.”

“There was a big explosion obviously the Power Rangers won, it always ends with a big explosion.” Aden yelled as he raced to the door of the gym.

Lexa raced across the floor and the lights shut off plunging the gym into darkness only lessened by the small windows high up. Aden opened the door letting bright light flare through only for a shadow to quickly fall over Aden’s small frame and the boy leapt back from the door when a massive crash sounded outside.

Lex reached the doorway to see the Red Tyrannosaurus Zord lying flat on its back with flames and smoke coming from the cockpit. Lexa looked out the door and in the direction she had seen the zords run before. The sight was apocalyptic; green flames and massive explosions as the Pterodactyl fell from the sky, the Saber tooth was in a similar condition to the Tyrannosaurus, the Mastodon and Triceratops were both wrecks but their cockpits seemed intact. As Lexa looked out at the carnage in the street she saw a massive green flash and then the blue ranger flew out of the sky and landed right in front of her, taking her breath away.

The blue ranger’s helmet had shattered leaving half of it on and the other half missing and what was beneath was beautiful. There was pale skin underneath dust blood and ash, a brilliant blue eye shining with pain, stared at her beneath a nasty cut that was bleeding down her face. Her shattered helmet also revealed blonde hair peeking out. She was beautiful. Lexa was stunned.

The blue ranger turned to the red zord behind her and jumped into the cockpit and gasped. She said a few words too low for Lexa to hear and emerged carrying the body of the red ranger. Anger flashed behind her eyes and she drew a gleaming red sword and screamed to the heavens.

“Sidney! Get out here and face me, no more running, no more hiding, NO, MORE, DEATH!” The blue ranger screamed rage and pain racing through her.

In response to her screams an older woman leapt down to the street from somewhere above. Her blonde hair was paler than the blue ranger’s and hung half way down her back. She was wearing shards of green armour ending in wicked spikes leaving her joints and face totally uncovered. Her boots ended in vicious claws and she was wielding a wicked green bladed sword with a shining green stone wrapped in gold at the pommel.

“So this is it little blue?” She said wickedly twirling her sword, “I just had to kill two of your team and half your town for you to give up your morals?” She laughed as she taunted the ranger.

“I can’t let you keep getting away, you’ve hurt too many of my people, screw the rules you need to be stopped for once and for all,” the Blue Ranger growled dangerously.

“Oh dear is little Blue getting angry? Ha! As if you could take me alone,” Sidney said as she lunged at the Blue Ranger with her blade.

The blades clashed, swung and clashed again and Lexa could tell that these two were using more than simple human skills and powers. The blades moved so fast that even Lexa with all her practice and training could barely keep up with the flow of the fight.  
The two women had stopped talking with their words letting their blades say everything they needed to. The green woman was vicious; looking to kill, wearing the blue ranger down. Lexa could see it on Sidney’s face, she had the ranger and judging from the state of the zords and Blue’s armour, there weren’t any other rangers left standing. When a sword finally got through the other’s guard it savaged deep into Blue’s side causing her to scream in pain as red gushed from a wound in her side, staining her armour. The shrill, pained scream forced Lexa to act.

She ran back inside to where the ceremonial swords were kept; ceremonial but perfectly functional and took the one she was most comfortable with. The hilt was ornate with a dragon winding around it forming grooves that Lexa’s long slender fingers, the cross guard was formed from the wings of the dragon and the long blade was tinged with green on one cutting edge. Usually these swords were treated with utmost respect and reverence while they were removed from their cases but Lexa didn’t have the time. Her fingers found the familiar grooves as she drew the blade from its ornate scabbard as she raced back to the fight, to hopefully make a difference.  
…

Clarke’s side screamed with every movement she made, her sword movements slowed with every block and Sidney was coming closer and closer for the kill. Her death was near and she was almost ready. She had challenged Sidney on the hopes that she could bring her down once and for all and end the need for the rangers. She was beaten and it was now only a matter of time before she died.

As Sidney made a vicious stab towards her abdomen Clarke felt her sword move too slowly to intercept and she knew this was the end, she changed her blade’s direction to at least get a strike in as she died. Clarke was shocked when an ornate green and silver blade caught Sidney’s blade.

Wielding the sword was the beautiful brunette that she had seen watching her from the nearby dojo, her green eyes burning with passion. The girl exchanged a few blows with Sidney while Clarke stood still in surprise and shock.

“You going to help me or just stand there and bleed ranger? Neither of us can do this alone.” The girl’s voice snapped Clarke back into action and despite her weakened state followed the strange girl back into the fight.

There was something special about the girl Clarke thought as they fought against Sidney; they had never met and somehow were working together as a perfect team, forcing Sidney to follow their strike as the other went for exposed flesh. Despite their efforts Sidney had only been lightly scratched a few times, not enough to slow her down.

Sidney was still faster and stronger than normal humans Beccause she had been misusing a power coin. This whole situation was Beccause she had found a power coin and was using its power without being a Power Ranger. Today had gone to hell and stopping Sidney was the only way to make it even remotely worth it.

They continued on attacking Sidney with their strangely perfect rhythm until she over extended on blocking one of the brunettes’ attacks and Clarke was able to drive her blade into Sidney’s back. The scream that followed was one of rage and incredible pain, which quickly changed to a gurgle as blood found its way into Sidney’s mouth. Even with the power taken from the Coin she was still just a human and with the incomplete armour she was able to be brought down by a simple sword strike.

Sidney’s sword clattered to the ground with a sound of finality; the Power Rangers had been fighting against her since they were formed and now with her being brought down the whole Polaris District was safe. They had battled her from Polis to Arkadia and several times in between in the smaller cities.

The girl was bending over to pick up the sword and the Power Coin embedded in the hilt glowed bright green. Clarke recognised the sign of a Power Coin choosing its true owner and felt for the poor girl. The six months since she had been chosen as a Ranger had been hard, she had seen innocent people die, many of them as collateral damage and today who knew how many had died to the monster and the explosions and just everything going wrong. If the sixth Power Coin had chosen this girl she was going to be in for a hard time and Clarke felt for her, but personally she had had enough. Wells and Finn were both dead and Raven had been in terrible pain before the comms in her helmet had broken.

“The coin seems to have chosen you, take it with you to the far side of Mount Weather and at the Rocks of Dawn there is a gap that will lead you down into the Command Centre where you can talk to Becca Pramheda. Before you go down there you need to think if you are prepared to be chained to the coin and everything that it symbolises.” Clarke said her voice turning bitter towards the end of her spiel. She was not happy with Becca at the moment.

“Why can’t you show me where it is?” Lexa asked slightly confused.

“Beccause you need to make this decision on your own, and I need to talk to Becca on my own.” Clarke said, the side of her face visible through her broken helmet flashed with anger for the briefest of moments. “Take your time to decide, Polaris is safe for the moment.” Clarke said as she looked at the wound in her side.

The wound was healing visibly, the fight had put a serious strain on her body and the leftover reserves of power and energy she had were working slowly to prevent her from needing medical attention immediately. It wouldn’t so for a ranger to need to go to hospital wounded and bleeding straight after a battle, would be rather difficult to keep the secret. The healing wasn’t perfect, it was just enough to keep them going and they could always return to the Command Centre to get patched up properly.  
Seeing Clarke looking at her injury the girl asked “did you need someone to look at that?”

“No thanks, I’ll heal up enough to get to the Command Centre where Becca will handle the rest.” Clarke sat down and leant against the nearby building for a brief rest to speed up the healing process a little. This girl had selflessly jumped into a battle between two super powered people without a second thought. She was pretty but was making Clarke feel uncomfortable with the way she was just looking at her.

“What happened today?” she asked.

“We had a plan, things got fucked up and people died,” Clarke said running her fingers along the wound again and realising it had closed enough for her to make it to the Command Centre stood up as the girl watched. “This is weird, I know I can’t tell you my name, Ranger rules and all that but having a nameless woman stare at me is weird.”

“Lexa, Lexa Woods of Polis.” Lexa said as she flashed a bright smile at Clarke.

“Blue Ranger, obviously. May we meet again Lexa.” Clarke said as she started to jog up towards her zord feeling Lexa’s eyes on her back the whole way.  
…

The final decision hadn’t taken Lexa long to reach at all, she had basically done everything a Power Ranger did already without the armour and super powers. She had protected the kids of the dojo, she had fought against the evil and she had given her all to help the Blue Ranger. If the coin decided it wanted her to be a ranger then who was she to deny it.

The hardest part about her choice was actually finding the access to the Command Centre that the Blue Ranger had said was somewhere around the Rocks of Dawn; a natural formation that resembled a sunrise.

The Command Centre was impressive, the hallways were metal and well light with several branching pathways. Looking into some of the rooms she passed Lexa saw machine parts, armour pieces and weapons; others held maps and vehicles. This place looked like it could outfit more than five or six people so what were the limitations? Why so few rangers?

Hearing voices Lexa followed them until she reached the main chamber where she saw a beautiful blonde woman, most likely the Blue Ranger talking to a woman on a screen. Lexa blinked and realised it was more complicated than just a screen, it was almost as if the wall itself was alive and this woman. Lexa’s attention was dragged back to the actual conversation when the Blue Ranger’s voice spoke up again, harshly and loudly.

“More people have died than any other time, hell the Power Rangers have killed more than any of the villains have. I’m done, I’ve done terrible things to keep people safe and its cost us everything. I. AM. DONE.” Clarke said struggling to keep her voice level despite the increased volume and harshness. She was struggling not to break down.

“Clarke, I am sorry that you feel such terrible burdens, such loss. You have saved everyone time and time again. We owe you everything and we need you.” Becca said sadly, not sure how to console Clarke as hurt as she was.

“Finn and Wells are dead, Octavia almost died and Raven lost her leg. Sidney is dead and it’s a fucking miracle that all of us didn’t join her. Lexa, the girl standing behind me listening to every word we say saved me.” Clarke yelled as she pointed over her shoulder right at Lexa who gasped.

Lexa hadn’t made any noise but Clarke knew exactly where she was and all of a sudden Lexa felt she had intruded on a very private moment, Clarke breaking down in front of Becca, basically saying she was quitting the rangers.

“Don’t be shy Lexa come show Becca the next chained soul to serve her.” Clarke said mockingly, Lexa couldn’t tell exactly who she was mocking but didn’t like the tone. She walked down into the room around a hole that had swirling energy with crackling lightning within it. This hole was surrounded by six pedestals, one of each colour Power Ranger; Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink and Black with the sixth pedestal being green. The same colour as her coin, like the original team had six members.

“So the sixth Power Coin has returned in the hands of chosen member. At long last the Rangers are back at full strength.” Becca said pride showing in her voice.

“Full strength my arse, we barely have two Rangers standing right now. If you want the Rangers back to full strength you can do it with Lexa and not me” Clarke said standing and tossing four coins into the well between the pedestals. “Octavia is still a Ranger and Lexa seems to have decided to join, so you have two rangers to build your new team from. I’m done.” Clarke said finally as she turned and left the Command Centre. She stopped in the doorway and looked at Lexa sadly.

“I’m sorry you have been chosen for this task. I just can’t do it anymore, hundreds of deaths on my conscience and two of my closest friends dead and one disabled, it’s too much. I won’t reveal your secret but I can’t stand beside you. Thank you for saving my life today” Clarke said with a sad smile as she turned and walked away leaving the rangers behind her.


	2. Arc 1 Rebuilding the Rangers (Lincoln)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is trying to run from her feelings and guilt but she runs into a person she didn't expect or want to see. Lexa meanwhile starts her task of hunting people to refill the empty ranger team. She realises that this task is a much bigger mountain than she originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a clarification this whole story takes place in the Polaris District think of it like a state of a country. It has two cities, Polis and Arkadia and smaller towns like Hakeldama and Ton DC scattered about,

Arc 1: Rebuilding the Rangers

Lexa stood in the central chamber of the Command Centre and looked at the sentient being trapped in the form of a sentient wall. Becca had said it was a form of time lock to keep her trapped but also keep her alive, it was very complicated to Lexa and she had enough information to absorb as it was.

“The Power Rangers were originally six and each time they have been called upon they were able to defeat the enemies and protect the Praimfaya, the Flames of True Creation. The first Ranger team all gave their lives to protect it and now Clarke’s team sacrificed much of itself to reclaim the sixth coin. Sidney was not the orchestrator of those attacks, merely a tool used by someone way more powerful. His plans all focus on claiming the Praimfaya and remaking the world to his own ends, he wants to become a god.” Becca said laying out the stakes that the Rangers faced.

“So if every team is five or six members why does this place look like it could outfit an army?” Lexa asked curiosity getting the better of her.

“Every ranger is unique and we keep all the vehicles and weapons used in case they are needed again. It is simultaneously an armoury and a memorial. There is however one weapon that is passed from Green Ranger to Green Ranger: The Dragon Dagger. This dagger is also a flute and was used to summon the Dragonzord.”

“Was?” Lexa asked looking at the green pedestal, her pedestal and the dagger that was set upon it.

“The Dragonzord hasn’t been used in three ranger teams and the coin was stolen before the formation of the current team.” Becca said.

“Why wasn’t it used?”

“The battles were over before the sixth coin chose its wielder, it is slow to choose and many times it is a singular large battle. The Dragonzord is unique among the zords, it was not formed in the shape of a dinosaur and the Dragon Dagger is critical in releasing its true power. You could be the first Ranger in a long time to realise the true potential of the Dragonzord. You will have to reform the Rangers in order to restore full power to your coin; Sidney’s misuse drained its power but we can use the Morphing Grid to restore it.”

“So where do you fit into this cycle of Rangers and Praimfaya?” Lexa asked finally starting to understand that this was not just put on some fancy armour and punching your problems away.

“I was part of the first team and I was trapped in this Time Lock, just one of the many sacrifices necessary that day. Ever since I have stuck around for when the Power Rangers are inevitably called upon again to assist them.” Becca said.

“Don’t forget Lexa, each Power Ranger follows three primary rules:  
Rule number one: Never use your powers for personal gain.  
Rule number two: Never escalate a battle unless forced.  
Rule number three: Always keep your identity a secret, nobody should know that you are a Power Ranger.” Becca said laying each rule down carefully so it would be remembered.  


“If the Power Coins have to choose their Ranger how is one person supposed to be able to rebuild the Power Rangers?” Lexa asked, seeing what looked to potentially be the single largest obstacle in her mission.

“Take the coins from the Morphing Grid behind you, they will lead you to each new Ranger” Becca said as three coins floated out of the well; yellow, red and pink but no blue.

“I thought Clarke quit, why hasn’t her coin reappeared?” Lexa asked as she took the three coins in front of her.

“If her coin is not here it is most likely that her coin will not choose anyone else. If that is the case then bringing her back will be the hardest of them all.” Becca said sadly.

“I will do what I can, anything I can do to keep the kids at Natblida Dojo and the Polaris Region as a whole safe.” Lexa said as she set herself for the challenging task ahead of her.

…

Clarke was relaxing in a small coffee shop in Polis City. It had been three days since she had handed in the Power Coins but her own coin was still following her. She had noticed it the morning after, just sitting on her bedside table. Her first reaction was to open her window and throw it out but she had found it in her pocket not long afterwards. She was being stalked by her Power Coin.

The newspaper the day after the last battle had gone into great details on the casualties and Clarke had vomited, three hundred and forty seven people dead and it was all her fault. Thankfully there had been no mention of the identities of the Rangers for which she was grateful. Her phone buzzed on the table with another incoming call from Octavia. Clarke sighed realising that she wasn’t going to give up as easily as first thought, but then had been friends for years and Rangers together for months.

Answering the call Clarke was immediately greeted by one of Octavia’s high speed rants “Clarke, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? You kill Sidney, great but then next time I speak to Becca she says you’ve quit and run off after handing in the coins? Plus you’ve been completely radio silent for three days. Then this other girl shows up saying she is a new Ranger but has the green coin, that girl is weird, hot though.” Octavia finally paused for breath and Clarke took her chance to finally get a word in.

“Octavia enough. No I’m not telling you where I am, yes I handed in my coin but quitting won’t be as easy as that it seems. Yes I’ve met Lexa, she saved my life. I need space O, just space. I’ll call you when I’m ready.” Clarke said hanging up the call despite Octavia’s protests. The café door opened with a tinkling bell and Clarke looked up into the piercing eyes if Lexa, one of the last people Clarke wanted to see at this moment.

Lexa’s eyes seemed to brighten when she saw Clarke sitting alone even though Clarke was looking less and less happy the longer she sat there. Clarke looked down at her phone, hoping Lexa got the hint and just left her alone. She was not happy when Lexa pulled out the empty chair at the table.

“What do you want Lexa? If you want me to come back to the Rangers I won’t come. I told Becca, you were there, I’m done.” Clarke said not meeting Lexa’s eye. She just wanted the other girl to leave.

“I never said anything about joining the Rangers, I never even said anything; I just wanted to sit down and have a coffee. Please Clarke I’m just here as a girl who helped another girl out and wanted to see how she was doing. So how are you holding up?” Lexa asked, her voice soothing and calm.

“Oh I’m doing perfectly fine.” Clarke spat looking anywhere that wasn’t at Lexa.\

“You’re lying” Lexa said flatly.

“No shit Lexa,” Clarke said.

“Would you like to,” Lexa started before Clarke lashed out, voice low but harsh.

“Let’s see I am personally responsible for nearly 350 deaths, two of which were my close friends, another friend lost her leg. I tried to quit, bearing the burden alone is killing me. I can’t even leave because my own damn Power Coin is stalking me, I throw it away and within the hour is reappears right next to me. So no I am not ok and I don’t buy that bullshit excuse that you just wanted to see how I was doing. You just want to know how broken I am before you tried to add me to your team. Well I’m a mess and I’m not coming back no matter what you or Becca or Octavia or that fucking stalking coin says.” Clarke said, voice getting almost loud enough to draw attention to the conversation.

“Is there anything I can do?” Lexa asked.

“Go fuck yourself Lexa, as if you could ever understand. Leave me alone if I want to talk to the Rangers I will choose when and how.” Clarke spat and left the café leaving a stunned Lexa behind.

Maybe leaving the Power Coin on the table in the presence of another Ranger would stop it stalking her. That thought was the only thing that made itself clear through the storm of emotions and thoughts racing through Clarke as she walked quickly down the street, not even really caring where she was going until she ran into a rather solid body.

Looking at just who she had run into Clarke saw a man and a woman, both about her age. The man was solidly built, almost like a football player with shaved head and tattooed arms. Despite his outward tough appearance his eyes shone with kindness and mirth at Clarke’s tumble to the ground.

“Easy there, I know I’m single but that’s no reason to fall for me as soon as we meet. Let me charm you first. I’m Lincoln,” the man said as she reached down to help Clarke up. He pulled her to her feet with ease one handed. He was strong.

“Lincoln, you couldn’t charm your way out of a paper bag.” The girl said smirking. She had wicked strong jawlines and angular cheekbones giving her a very sharp appearing face. She didn’t have Lincoln’s open friendliness being very closed off when looking at Clarke but when she spoke to Lincoln was much more open.

“Anya, next time Blondie watch where you walk, people of Polis like their streets clean.” Anya said smirking, it wasn’t a gentle teasing barb, and it felt deeper and probing.

Clarke realised that she actually did look a mess and it wasn’t as harsh as it first sounded. She had barely slept in three days and had been wandering aimlessly through Polis, when she was from Arkadia.

“I’ll keep that in mind, this place is a bunch of neat freaks, explains a lot.” Clarke said starting to walk past them.

“Not bad Blondie but if you’re going to be wandering around our city might want to clean up a bit, might make you some new friends.”

“And if I don’t care about new friends?” Clarke snapped back.

“Explains how you haven’t given us a name even after Lincoln was so kind as to help you up. Get some manners too Blondi, might make people less hostile.” Anya said as she turned and walked off.

“Anya is an acquired taste; don’t worry about it newbie. Should swing past Niylah’s sometime she’ll help you out.” Lincoln said following Anya with a wave.

Talking to the two of them had given Clarke a brief respite from her inner turmoil but it came back as she started walking. Niylah’s might be her stop for the evening, not that she would admit to taking advice from random strangers.

…

Lexa hadn’t moved from the table Clarke had left her at. Clarke was hurting and her anger was her choice of defence mechanism. She had wanted to meet Clarke properly before deciding her next move trying to rebuild the Power Rangers.  She was staring at the blue coin left on the table when she was suddenly joined by two people; Lincoln and Anya.

As her two friends pulled out their chairs the Blue Power Coin on the table flared, flashed and vanished. Lincoln and Anya were totally shocked while Lexa was just impressed; Clarke had just ranted about a stalking coin and seeing it actually move was impressive.

“Ok so what the fuck was that Lexa?” Anya asked sharply staring at the spot the coin had disappeared from.

“How mad would you be if I said I don’t know?” Lexa asked.

“I’d call bullshit, you were sitting at this table when we arrived, plus you weren’t surprised when it happened.” Anya said folding her arms, challenging Lexa to open up.

“I can’t tell you, not at the moment.” Lexa said trying not to meet Anya’s eyes even as she felt warmth from her pocket; at least one coin had chosen somebody in this café or at least that’s what Lexa thought the warmth meant.

“Fine be all secretive, I expect you to tell me one day.” Anya said leaning back and flagging down one of the waiters.

“If you haven’t forgotten by the time that day comes” Lexa muttered. Lincoln heard and chuckled and Anya just glared at Lexa.

“I am not that forgetful” Anya said in indignation as the waitress next to her cleared her throat waiting for Anya to give her order. Anya’s face dropped and Lexa and Lincoln roared with laughter. Anya scowled at the pair of them and gave the waitress her order quickly. Lincoln and Lexa placed their orders as well and the waitress went back behind the counter.

“So what is the cause of this random meeting in a random café?” Lincoln asked trying to steer the conversation back to its original purpose. Lexa thought for a moment, she had to see if they would be willing to become rangers without actually asking them. The two people sitting in front of her she trusted more than anyone else and felt that they had the values needed to handle being a ranger. Hardest part would be asking them.

“I needed to see you guys, everything went to shit with the Power Rangers a few days ago and this is the first chance I’ve had to drag myself away from Hakeldama. Did you hear a rumour that some of the Power Rangers died?” Lexa asked. First off she had to see if they were comfortable with the idea that maybe this would take more than most people would be willing to give.

“You’re kidding me right? They blow up half of Hakeldama and some of them die? Not even having to bear the burden, do you know how many people died that day?” Anya said, her voice layered with pain, anger and something that Lexa couldn’t quite identify.

Lexa sighed, Anya was hurt and bitter; understandable since she had spent most of her life in Hakeldama. Lexa looked over to Lincoln wondering how he was taking the news, she would talk to Anya about Clarke’s guilt later.

“Take it easy Anya they sacrificed themselves to save us from that giant monster. The survivors must have so much guilt.” Lincoln said, knowing how Anya felt about death and problems and needless death. Survivor’s guilt was something they all understood.

“Yeah well they brought their problems down into our region? Why?” Anya said. Lexa wondered briefly if everyone in Anya’s group of friends was safe.

“That’s why I brought you two here today. I met one of the rangers towards the end of the battle.” Lexa said calmly and watched as her two friends were shocked for the second time within ten minutes.

“No way, you met one? What happened?” Lincoln asked in excitement and awe, he was just like Aiden with his boyish glee. He looked at Anya who looked about to say something harsh with a very mature and not childlike voice “Anya shut the fuck up until Lexa tells us exactly what she’s trying to get at. I don’t know what’s up your arse today about the rangers but let the girl finish.” Lincoln said as Lexa raised an eyebrow.

“Did you listen to yourself just then? Interrupting me before I get into the real meat of the story.” Lexa said staring Lincoln down for a few seconds then moving her gaze across to Anya who said nothing.

“AS I was saying, I met a ranger saved her life and she is having a serious survivor’s guilt crisis. She blames herself, she lost two of her friends and another lost a leg. So the rangers need more members.” Lexa said, somehow without proper planning she had somehow gotten the issue across without admitting that she had already become a ranger.

“So why are you telling us this? Did she ask you to find more members?” Lincoln asked. So it looked like she was going to have to reveal it after all.

“No, not Clarke. She took me to the Command Centre of the Power Rangers up in the hills behind Mount Weather and I spoke to their leader, Becca Pramheda. She was the one who asked for my help to rebuild the team. Clarke is broken, I don’t know how to help her at the moment so I figured I would just tackle the other coins first.” Lexa said and waited as the truth sunk in and Anya and Lincoln realised exactly what it was she was saying.

“Are you saying that you’re?” Lincoln cut himself off when the waitress returned with their drinks, all three of them saying thanks as she moved away. “Are you a Power Ranger?” Lincoln asked with his childish gleam back in his eyes.

“Yes I am a Power Ranger, or I will be once I get the team back together; my coin is out of power at the moment; Sidney; the woman who created the monster, nearly drained it dry and now I need to put the whole team back together to restore it to full power.” Lexa said, her task which on the surface sounded so simple: grab Octavia, Clarke and three other teenagers give them the promise of super human powers and you get your own powers but it was immensely more complicated than that it seemed. Teenagers as a species were a mess of hormones and emotions and were having enough trouble dealing with their own lives, let alone the lives of the millions of people of the Polaris District.

“So you’re a powerless Power Ranger until you get all of them back together?” Anya asked looking at Lexa slightly differently now, as if trying to line up two separate versions of her. “So how do you even know that coin is going to work?”

“Well, even without turning into the armoured superhero I am already stronger and faster than I was. The coins boost you to incredible levels and the armour helps you fight in so many different ways apparently.” Lexa said, honestly know that she was talking about it she was feeling the excitement, never again will she be helpless. That had happened once and lead to her starting at Natblida Dojo but now she could help the helpless even more.

“Right so what now?” Lincoln asked.

“Now I take these fucking hot coins out of my pocket and see which one of them iis burning because of you.” Lexa said finally admitting that the coins that had originally been pleasantly warm had grown hotter and hotter and now were burning her leg through her jeans pocket. Lexa pulled out the three coins she was searching for a new owner for; red, yellow and pink and placed them on the table. The yellow coin did not react while the red and pink coins moved towards the other two and left a light burn on the table. Lincoln grabbed the red coin and smiled while Anaya just scowled at the pink coin as if daring it to come any closer. Lexa and Lincoln laughed at Anya’s reaction to not only being chosen but being chosen as the Pink Ranger.

“No” Anya said flatly moving as though to stand but Lincoln’s hand on her shoulder kept her in place.

“First off, what are you saying no to? Pink or being a Ranger or being the Pink Ranger?” Lincoln asked kindly. He stopped there not sure exactly where to take his line of questioning.

“The whole fucking thing, you want me to go out there and risk my life? Risk my life for people who didn’t give a damn about me? About us? People that let Tris die?” Anya said standing and tearing Lincoln’s hand away in one smooth motion. “Where were the Rangers when we were kids? Where were they when kids were treated like shit in Polis? Where were they when we got thrown out into the cold?” Anya said anger and hurt from their past showing it’s face. All three of them had been thrown out onto the wilds of the Polis streets at some point in their childhood.

Lincoln had lost his parents in a fire and the family he ended up with had thrown him out a few months later, they had only been using him for a financial break but the cost of his food and football gear had cost too much so they simply said don’t come home.

Lexa’s parents had died in a car crash and instead of staying with her abusive uncle she had taken off, found solace amongst some of the other runaways.

Anya had been through the worst of it, abandoned by her birth parents and bouncing through a few foster houses until she was about twelve before finally being thrown out. All three of them had ended up at Niylah’s who had helped them get their lives together and now that they had finished school they had managed to stabilise themselves. Niylah was one of the greatest people in Polis in their eyes.

It seemed that Anya now faced with the resurgence of all her old painful memories. Since the Rangers had emerged Anya had been bitter that these people that were “destined to help” had not been around during the crisis of orphans in Polis while Arkadia blossomed. Anya’s bitterness had been a point of tension between her and many of the young kids at Natblida Dojo.

“Maybe this is your chance to make the Power Rangers what you feel they should be Anya. Maybe this is the Morphing Grid; the thing that gives Rangers their power realising that they aren’t as protective or helpful as they could be. This could be the time that the Rangers do the little stuff too.” Lexa said calmly, she knew Anya had been through hell and the lack of people to help was a sore point.

“They have you two for that, don’t see why I need to be in pink armour to do it.” Anya said walking out of the café, leaving Lexa and Lincoln behind staring at each other.

“I’m in Lexa, and don’t worry about Anya, she’ll come around.” Lincoln said and the two were distracted by the pink coin that Anya had left on the table disappearing in a pink flash. Looking at the burn mark where the coin had been Lexa felt like Lincoln was right and that it would all turn out well. With Clarke and Anya seeming to reject the Power Rangers Lexa had to hope that it would work out.


	3. Rebuilding the Rangers 2 (Monty)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa has found Raven and spoken to her and has enlisted her help for finding the owner of the last coin, who better to find a new ranger than an old ranger?  
> Rebuilding a team of broken rangers is more complicated than just finding people and its starting to wear on Lexa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter this time.  
> Housekeeping, the whole story is set in the Polaris district, which is like a state or large region. It has the two big cities of Polis and Arkadia with smaller towns like Ton DC and Hakeldama in between. And I don't know what the usual recovery time of losing a limb is but with the accelerated healing she is back on her foot (sorry couldn't resist it). Anyway thanks for all the lovely comments you guys have really spurred me on today :)

Rebuilding the Rangers 2: Monty

Monty Green was sitting in a computer lab at Arkadia University watching his friend Jasper swear and smash his keyboard at the videogame he was playing to take a brief break from their current project; programming a battle bot for the upcoming Arkadia v Polis Battle Bot tournament. Normally they would have had help in the form of Raven but she had been in Hakeldama a week ago when the Power Rangers had their final climactic battle with Diana Sidney and was part of the collateral damage. Somehow she had been caught up in the destruction and lost her right leg. At the moment she was still in hospital recovering. It couldn’t be helped, Monty thought, it was an unfortunate risk living in a region that had the Power Rangers fighting climactic battles. People got hurt or killed. Three hundred people had died when the Rangers plan had gone awry.

Monty was working in his spare time on advanced prosthetics for people like Raven hurt in the crossfire of Power Ranger battles or other less dramatic but no less traumatic accidents. Monty was pulled from his musings by Jaspers scream of frustration as his clan of natives were overrun by barbaric people from the sky once again.

“Gah this game sucks, you spend all this time building up this fascinating culture and style of life and then these fucking arseholes drop from space and think they own the land. They just come and they take and take and they just kill for no reason.” Jasper said, frustrated and angry at the game always pushing its stupid colonial storyline.

“Yeah people suck, thinking they are hot shit just because of tech or power or whatever.” Monty said absent-mindedly putting a few extra lines of code in to the robotic arm he was working on. The command was supposed to make the arm clench in to a fist. Instead of clenching in to a fist the arm did a half-hearted flop and fell to the floor. “Still haven’t gotten the hang of this code yet.” Monty said as he undid the work he had been doing for the past half an hour, it was slow going trying to build this whole coding system without Raven, she was the true genius of the three.

“Of course you wouldn’t get it that quickly Monty, hell that code is hard enough for me to deal with” a cocky, familiar voice said accompanied by a rhythmic series of clunks. Monty and Jasper turned around to see Raven swinging in to the lab on a pair of crutches. Even though she had been injured and a week in hospital she looked better than she should have; no lingering cuts or bruises and she was released really quickly for just having lost a leg.

“Yeah well I thought you’d still be busy flirting with the nurses and saying cheesy pickup lines like you had to leg it to the hospital or something.” Jasper said laughing as he stood up to embrace his friend.

“Leg it to the hospital? Jasper you wound me any attempts at flirting were far more high class than that. There was this one girl that came in though; wanted to talk to me about how I got injured, seemed to know a lot more about it than any of the doctors. Said she wanted to talk to me again after I got out so I messaged her to meet me here.” Raven said looking around as if to see a random girl appear in their computer lab.

“Oh so there was a girl and you got her number just from being in hospital? Damn Raven you’re smooth” Monty whistled impressed.

“So this is why you’re not dating is it Raven? Have to babysit two little boys?” Lexa said leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on her face.

“One of them, I did just lose a leg and got to get used to everything all over again.” Raven said, doubt creeping in to her voice.

“Wait Raven she actually asked you on a date?” Jasper asked falling off his chair in excitement.

“Told you it would work and be funny” Raven said beaming at the prank Lexa and her had just played on her two friends.

“I didn’t doubt it. Well done Raven, now if I may why did you ask to meet me here with these two of all places?” Lexa asked.

“I needed to talk to these two clowns about the prosthetics we’ve been working on see if once I get the basic attachment fitted I can use one of our fancy ones but if Monty’s expression is anything to go by we still have a long way to go.” Raven said sadly.

“Take a walk with me Raven?” Lexa asked, gesturing her head out of the lab. Raven followed ignoring the laughter and comments of her friends behind her.

…

“So I take it you wanted to talk more about how I hurt my leg away from those two right?” Raven said, swinging along on her crutches to a nearby bench and taking a seat. “Sorry not quite used to these things yet, takes a lot of effort.” Raven said leaning back, glad to take a break from the crutches.

“It was when your Pterodactyl zord crashed after the reactor explosion wasn’t it?” Lexa asked, plain and simple saying she knew exactly how it had happened and also saying that she knew Raven had been the Pink Power Ranger.

“Yeah, how did you know?” Raven asked surprised for a moment but collecting herself all the same.

“I saved Clark’s life that day and was chosen by the Green Power Coin. I met Becca and have started working on rebuilding the Power Rangers.” Lexa said, letting a breath out quickly. One week climbing that mountain and she exhausted and feeling helpless, and she still hadn’t found the one remaining Ranger yet.

“So you got the Coin that we died trying to recover? I’m glad it’s finally safe from people wanting to misuse it. The sacrifices we made, I hope they were worth it in the end.” Raven said, looking downcast.

“Sacrifices like that never feel worth it. I think that’s what Clarke is tearing herself up about at the moment; that and the guilt.” Lexa said, not knowing how best to bring up the next part. Lately it seemed ripping off the Band-Aid was working for her lately so why not keep a working method going?

“When I was in the lab with you the coin in my pocket was warming, a sign that it had chosen one of the guys in there.” Lexa said not quite looking at Raven. Bad enough that she had lost her leg and her ability to continue on as a Power Ranger and now one of her friends had been chosen to take up the mantle next.

“It would be Monty, being a Ranger you can see the qualities that the Power Coins would look for in replacements and he fits it perfectly. He is kind, sweet and smart and all he wants to do is help people. The dude grew up wanting to work in robotics and prosthetics to help those injured in the cross fire of ranger conflicts.” Raven said pride filling her voice at her friend’s commitment to his dream and helping people.

“Sounds like he would be perfect for the job.” Lexa said. “How would I go about telling him and asking for his help?” Lexa asked finally looking back at Raven who had a small tinge of sadness marring her features. Raven had just lost her purpose and then her leg and now her friend was replacing her. Lexa felt for the girl, this transition was rough on everybody and it wasn’t even half finished yet.

“Just talk to him about it, he’ll be easy enough to convince.” Raven said and then perked up quickly as though struck by a sudden idea “OH! Let me come with you guys to Becca I reckon ALIE can help me rig up a new leg and I can help you out with your zords and other tech.”

“We can’t leave Jasper left out of the loop if both you and Monty are going to be spending a lot of time with the Rangers.” Lexa said, it was one of the problems of being a Ranger; only having a few others let in on the secret.

“Hmm yeah that’s a problem, we tell him at the same time as Monty and his jealously could take over, keep him out of the loop totally could be bad if or when the secret gets out.” Raven said realising that her friend being left out of this could cause all sorts of issues. The two girls sighed each starting to feel the weight of their burdens that they had been given. One week and they were already incredibly heavy. Lexa and Raven would need the Rangers just as much as the Polaris District needed them.

As the two were sitting on their bench they were soon joined by Monty who was taking a stroll taking a break from the computer lab. He noticed the girls had expressions like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“So ladies who dropped the world on your shoulders?” Monty asked taking his seat between them. Lexa and Raven exchanged glances and seemed to have a whole conversation in silence.

“No better time to do this I guess; Raven was a Power Ranger, that’s how she lost her leg and I am currently trying to rebuild the team” Lexa said reaching into her pocket to pull out the heated coin and pass it to Monty. “This coin seems to have chosen you.” Lexa said as Monty took the coin and grinned.

“A chance to help people and protect the district; how could I say no to that?” Monty said easily prepared to take on the responsibility. Lexa relaxed slightly, with the second new ranger added to the team and the last coin having found its chosen bearer.

“So Raven, Lexa what’s your next move?” Monty asked.

“Now that the empty coins have chosen their bearers I need to find Octacvia, talk to her to see her opinion on forming the new ranger team. Then once I’ve got her I have to figure out what to do about my friend who was chosen but is resisting the choice. Last thing is to find a way to either get a new Blue Ranger or restore Clarke’s belief and faith and strength. She is totally guilt ridden and haunted by the disaster at Hakeldama.” Lexa said remembering the haunted look on Clarke’s face from the café, she couldn’t get the face she had made out of her mind.

“Clarke was blue?” Monty asked. “Yeah she has always born guilt herself, it hits her hard. Clarke thinks she can shoulder all of the guilt and pain herself and protect us. It didn’t work but she tried.” Raven said sadly. Clarke’s radio silence had been affecting her too.

“I have a feeling we are going to need her more than ever.” Raven said sadly, everyone on the old team had come to rely on Clarke in so many ways, more than just as the leader of the Rangers but as the person she was.

“If she is as lost as I think she is we are in real trouble” Lexa said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers for reading, thanks for your lovely kudos and comments. Any flaws in grammar and stuff and plot holes feel free to point them out to me either below or at Sir-Breygon on tumblr. Love you all


	4. Rebuilding the Rangers 3 Anya and Octavia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa and the other new members of her ranger team seek out Octavia to see where she stands on the new ranger team.  
> Clarke is hiding out at Niylah's when she runs in to a familiar face in Anya and the Polis crew run into an old foe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear lordy this chapter is a monster and just totally flowed out. Anyway we get some more back story and progress on the plot and start moving in to the next arc. Oh yeah this story is going to be broken in to arcs as demonstrated by the chapter titles. Fifty points if you guess what the next arc is about before I get there.

Rebuilding the Rangers 3 Anya and Octavia

“So three of us have our coins and have accepted being a Ranger. I think we should maybe talk to Octavia next. That way we just have Anya and Clarke to go. I’m probably going about this all backwards but I need help to convince Clarke and Anya is my friend I need to give her time to cool off before bringing up the idea again.” Lexa said leaning back on her chair.

Lexa, Monty, Raven and Lincoln were all lounging about in Raven’s house; it was the only one without stairs which was convenient and made it easier for Raven. Even though she was no longer a Power Ranger she was still I vital part of the team, they hadn’t had the chance to get her to the Command Centre to speak to ALIE to see if they could speed up the prosthetic leg construction process.

“Octavia is our next best bet, and at least we have two familiar faces, I can’t see her rejecting the opportunity. It gave her a purpose and she loved it.” Raven said, her experience and personal knowledge of the old Ranger team was proving highly valuable as Lexa set about trying to rebuild them.

“Easiest way would be just swing by Octavia’s place, she’s home today, probably take a few minutes. SO we start there then we get the rest of the team?” Raven said.

“Easy, she might be able to help us with Clarke.” Lexa said as the four of them started to move but then she realised it might be a bit confronting having four people show up at her door. “Isn’t this going to be a bit much suddenly four people, two strangers and her friend with a newly lost leg showing up at her door saying we need you to be a Ranger again?” Lexa asked hand on the doorframe looking back.

“Only if she says no” Raven said swinging her way out the door waiting for the others to follow. Lexa smiled and shook her head, these people were rather interesting.

…

Clarke was sitting in the dining room of Niylah’s watching the crowd of scruffy looking teenagers and young children that didn’t have any place to go or didn’t want to be home. Clarke had been here for a week, ever since Lincoln had mentioned it when Clarke had run into him and Anya. This place had been good to hide in, Clarke didn’t even have a problem admitting it now. She was hiding but honestly; it was for her friends benefit as well as her own. Clarke felt that if Octavia and Raven had to spend too much time with her then they would remember and be forced to relive the pain that she had caused them. The very idea broke her heart.

Looking across the dining room she saw the blonde woman with the sharp face she had met with Lincoln, what was her name? While Clarke stared and pondered she watched the woman knock back multiple shots of alcohol in quick succession. The only time people drank shots like that in Clarke’s experience was trying to avoid, run from or forget something. Clarke felt like she needed a drink too.

Clarke walked over to the girl “Room for another?” Clarke asked and looked at the girl, she was a total mess.

“Don’ see why not.” Anya said looking up, “Hey blondie, what brings you here to Niylah’s last chance saloon? You don’t look any better than last time we met, what are you running from?” Anya asked, sober enough to keep following the conversation but drunk enough to be numb.

“Hakeldama.” Clarke said simply, “What about you?” Anya’s eyes dropped to the floor.

“Lexa said something about Power Rangers needing new people and then she gave me this stalker coin.” Anya swore as she pulled out the Pink Power Coin and put it on the table to glare at it.

“You too Amy?” Clarke asked the name felt wrong but she slammed down two shots of amber liquid that burned her throat and pulled out her own Blue Power Coin.

“It’s Anya” she said irritably and then realised that Clarke had but her own coin the table. “Lexa gave you a coin too?”

“No, Lexa never gave me this coin. I got it six months ago and ended up being the leader of the Power Rangers until the disaster at Hakeldama which was all my fault.” Clarke said haunted by the deaths hanging over her. “I quit after that happened and my coin has followed me ever since.” Clarke glared at the pair of coins on the table.

The two women dissolved into silence just drinking and glaring at their coins for a while, neither of them knowing what to say, even their drunk selves couldn’t find a way to breach a topic that was clearly torturing the two of them.

The silence stretched on until the door was slammed open by a man wearing a bright red suit. He was tall and had close cut brown hair, grey eyes and a scar running down the right side of his face. Anya saw him and stood up swearing here heart out. Clarke was impressed she could still stand but the sight of this man seemed to have sobered her up.

“Fucking Emerson, what the fuck does he want? NIYLAH!” Anya said and then screamed for Niylah who came running in to the room wanting to see what had Anya screaming for her like she was a child in pain.

As Niylah skidded in to the room and saw who had kicked down her door her face dropped and then quickly morphed into one of total anger. “Emerson you better be here to tell us you’re leaving for good, but feel free to not I’ve been wanting to kick your fucking arse for years.”

Emerson just laughed, smoke seemed to seep from his open mouth. “Oh no Niylah I’m here to put an end to your little shit kid shack. Feel free to try kick my arse, it’s not going to end well for you” Emerson said evilly.

Niylah gave a yell and lunged at Emerson who sidestepped with ease and caught her around the wrist. His hand glowed red and Niylah screamed in pain, Emerson threw a strong punched into her gut and tossed Niylah aside.

Anya’s facial expression was one of total shock. The last time she had seen Niylah and Emerson fight she had easily handled him. The strange red glow and smoke seeping from his mouth seemed to have made a massive difference. Anya turned to Clarke and basically demanded “How do I get this fucking coin to work?” She was desperate.

“I don’t know how it’s going to work if the team hasn’t fully formed yet.” Clarke said whipping out her phone to make a phone call.

“Who the hell are you going to be calling right now? We need to stop him” Anya was manic and Clarke quickly saw why; Emerson’s hands were suddenly on fire and he was throwing fireballs around the room.

Clarke heard the phone get picked up and stopped Octavia before she could get a full head of steam on her tirade of anger at Clarke. “Octavia no time get to Niylah’s in Polis as fast as humanly possible, faster would be better.” Clarke said hanging up the phone and looking at Anya, Emerson and then at their Power Coins.

“So you going to tell me how to get these things to work?” Anya asked. Clarke thought about it and realised that they were both on a similar page, they both wanted to take this guy out and save Niylah’s place.

“At the moment we are on a similar enough wave length it should just be a matter of holding the coin and focusing on it.” Clarke said.

“Should? You’re basing our survival and the protection of this place on a should?” Anya screamed she was desperate, there was something deeper here.

“Well it’s the best I’ve got, otherwise we wait for Octavia whose coin is bound to still work just fine to get here and save us. So either we try it or we wait and probably die in the meantime.” Clarke yelled back, the flames and smoke were really starting to build up despite the best efforts of kids with buckets of water and fire extinguishers. They were lucky Emerson hadn’t just laughed and set the whole place alight as soon as he entered.

“Fine, let’s do it.” Anya said, jaw set and ready for a fight.

“It’s Morphin Time” Clarke yelled and the coins in their hands flashed as their armour appeared. The two freshly armoured Rangers nodded and leapt at Emerson.

…

Octavia heard a knocking on the door and even if it was Raven like she thought it was didn’t move very fast and her brother Bellamy beat her to the door. From the sounds he was making it wasn’t Raven at the door, he was being aggressive and trying to show his manliness or big brotherly protectiveness or something. Octavia thought she had better see exactly what was going on before somebody got punched.

“Please, there is no need to be so aggressive we just want to talk to Octavia” a huge bald muscled man was saying, arms up in a defensive posture. He was doing everything he could to deescalate any potential conflict.

“Yeah well why the hell do I have a massive guy from the Polis football player standing at my door? Octavia doesn’t have anything to do with Polis” Bellamy yelled poking Lincoln in the chest.

“Octavia is not only right here but an adult that can make her own decisions. Did you come with Raven?” Octavia asked, she was admiring the man and his impressive muscles.

“Yeah she’s coming, not as mobile these days though; she got hurt in Hakeldama” Lincoln said averting his eyes “Just a word of warning.”

“What do you mean?” Octavia asked, she hadn’t seen Raven since the last battle in Hakeldama, she had admittedly been a bit too focused on Clarke and her mysterious radio silence.

“I was just too damn sexy for this world so the universe decided to remove my better looking leg” Raven’s voice came through loud and clear and she limped up to the door on her new crutches, accompanied by Monty and a brunette woman Octavia didn’t know.

“This is Lincoln and Lexa we wanted to talk to you about that new soccer team we were trying to form and are wondering if you were still interested?” Raven said giving a significant glance across at Bellamy to basically tell Octavia that this was a Power Ranger matter and couldn’t say so in front of Bellamy.

“Yeah sure thing, you want to go down the pitch and have a kick? Talk it out down there?” Octavia said, getting nods from the visitors and dashing upstairs to grab her soccer ball to at least try and cover their tracks.

“Hey can I come with?” Bellamy asked as Octavia came back downstairs ball in hand. Octavia groaned and was trying to think of an excuse when her mobile phone rang, the name on the screen flashing up as Clarke. Octavia dropped the ball in shock as she fumbled with the phone to answer it before Clarke decided she didn’t actually want to talk.

“Clarke” Octavia managed to say before she was swiftly cut off by Clarke asking her to come to some shelter in Polis before hanging up.

“Clarke called? Why didn’t you say anything?” Raven asked and Octavia realised that they both missed and were worried about their friend and leader.

“She said to meet her at Niylah’s in Polis and then hung up. It was that tone of voice she used when she was serious and shit was urgent, you guys have space in your car? We can talk on the way.” Octavia said, thinking quickly. Just this morning she had woken up feeling lost and was thinking of going to talk to Becca about what she could do as a solo Power Ranger and now Clarke had ended her radio silence and a bunch of people came to her door to talk about Ranger stuff. Everything was moving so quickly she wasn’t sure if she could keep up. Lexa was the one who nodded and the five of them raced out to Lexa’s car.

“Sorry Bellamy only room for five, maybe next time?” Octavia said as the five piled in. The car pulled away with a squeal of tires.

“So Clarke used her Ranger’s assemble tone didn’t she?” Raven asked from the back seat as Lexa drove.

“Yeah she did” Octavia confirmed.

“Her Rangers assemble tone?” Lincoln asked slightly nervous especially since the place they were going was Niylah’s in Polis.

“Whenever Clarke needed us somewhere faster than humanly possible she always had this one tone she used and Raven and I learned to recognise it pretty quickly. There is no arguing with that tone and if she broke her radio silence to get us there in her Ranger tone it must be bad.

“Hang on team” Lexa said as she accelerated hard.

…

Anya didn’t have time to marvel at the perfect fit of her new armour, it was amazing and she felt so much better wearing it. Clarke had leapt at Emerson as soon as her armour formed, slamming her armoured fist into his stomach. Clarke had been faster and more vicious than Niylah and beaten Emerson’s guard knocking him back into the wall.

The man got back up and his suit burst into flames. “You have no idea of the power I wield now” he laughed and smoke poured from his mouth and he launched a blistering stream of fire at each Ranger.

Anya dived aside and watched as the large dining table where she had first learned to write went up in flames. That was something Anya would not forgive, destroying this place. Niylah’s had been the safest place for street rats in Polis. Anya had lived here for most of her young life and she still came back whenever things were hard or she was grappling with impossible choices. Today though the social worker that had attempted to take this place away from the street rats was back with super powers and was trying to burn it all down. Anya had never stood by and watched Emerson’s attempts to destroy this place and now it just became her personal responsibility.

“Clarke we need to get him outside, he’s going to burn this place down on top of us if we don’t.” Anaya said taking charge of the situation, this was after all the closest thing she ever had to a home, especially since the previous Power Ranger team had accidentally destroyed the shelter her and a few other street rats had been using.

“Obviously, you got any bright ideas how to catch a man on _fucking fire?_ ” Clarke said exasperatedly as she dodged a massive fist of fire and tried to lash out with a kick. Emerson dodged it, grabbed Clarke’s ankle and tossed her bodily across the room and flung a fist of fire at her.

“Like this blondie” Anya said throwing herself at Emerson from behind making his flames slam into the wall causing the wood to blister and burn. Wrapping her arms around him Anya managed to drag the burning man outside into the street. The two of them tumbled out onto the road forcing cars to come to a screeching halt around them. Clarke was quick to follow them, massive black burns across her chest and right leg.

“Impressive, now you come at him from the right,” Clarke said moving to the left.

“He can hear everything we are saying you aren’t exactly being quiet.” Anya said confused as to how Clarke expected anything to take someone who could hear them by surprise.

“Helmets all have internal communications, we can hear outside sounds but speaking is a direct channel into each other’s helmet. Now come on we have to take him on” Clarke said as she charged in and Anya was only a brief second behind her in launching her attack.

Emerson met Clarke’s charge head on, deflecting her fist and delivering a punch that burst into flames to her midsection sending her flying into one of the nearby cars. Anya landed a solid hit on his back causing Emerson to stumble forward, turn and send another fiery explosive fist into Anya’s shoulder.

“Okay, first off, that hurts like a fucking bitch, secondly how the hell are we supposed to take this guy out? He’s faster and he fucking explodes. Octavia better hurry the fuck up.” Clarke said struggling to her feet.

“Yeah yeah Clarke I’m coming as fast as I can.” Octavia’s voice suddenly came through the coms and Clarke was almost overcome with emotions; relief, love, fear and dread. Relief that not only Octavia had heard that she needed her and that she didn’t hate her enough to not come. Love that Octavia even with Clarke’s baggage and silence still came as fast as she could.  Fear that she was dragging yet another friend into an unwinnable battle and dread that she would cause another massacre.

“Octavia, what a relief, how close are you?” Clarke asked as she threw herself at Emerson again.

“Coming up the street in the Mastodon now.” Octavia said. Clarke looked up to see the shiny black elephant storming up the street with many of the cars swerving out of the way or the slower ones getting knocked aside. The zord slid to a halt near the cars that had stopped when the fight first burst out onto the street and Octavia leapt out of the cockpit fully clad in her Black Ranger armour. “Looks like it’s time for some thrilling heroics. The others are coming as fast as they can it just sounded like you needed some help here faster than that.” Octavia said drawing out her trusty black axe styled to look like the Mastodon zord.

“Hey ladies are you two going to help me fight or just stand there chatting” Anaya yelled through their helmet as she got knocked into another parked car again.

“Good point, like old times Octavia?” Clarke asked, Octavia nodded and the girls threw themselves into the fight.

_15 minutes prior…_

“This is taking too long” Octavia said for probably the fifth time since they had hit the road.

“I’m already going twenty over the speed limit” Lexa said, clearly frustrated with Octavia’s impatience.

“Screw it, I’m gonna morph, see if I can hear what’s happening.” Octavia said, grabbing her coin and with a flash she was sitting there in her armour and getting sounds over her helmet communication system. She turned off the comms and activated the external speakers that altered her voice. “Yeah they’ve already started fighting, I can get there faster in my zord which is on its way now” Octavia said.

“So is this the part where you agree to join the new Ranger team? Lexa asked as the black mammoth shaped zord ran up alongside the car. Lexa only slowed down enough for Octavia to leap from the car to the zord.

“That’s the thing Lexa, I never left so technically you guys are all joining my team” Octavia said with a smirk. “Sure I’m in though. Get there as fast as you can, Raven you need to teach them how to morph, we might need them.” Octavia said, closing the cockpit and the Mastodon zord accelerated away taking a straight line towards Polis City.

“So how do we morph Raven?” Monty asked, a bit of excitement and interest. Morphing while the most basic tool of the Power Rangers was more complicated than first thought it wasn’t just holding the coin and hoping.

“Our first morph was at the Command Centre focusing on each other and our bonds. It won’t work as well here so we need to go with common purpose. Today it’s helping Clarke and saving Niylah’s which seems to be a place of incredible importance to Lexa and Lincoln.” Raven said looking at the two in question.

“Yeah and Anya as well, actually she was probably there right now.” Lexa said realising that it was a habit of Anya’s when faced with a struggle, difficult question or just searching for answers to something she didn’t even know she was asking she always went to Niylah’s and within a few days had the answers she needed.

“At some point in our lives Lexa, Anya and I were all homeless and Niylah was basically a godsend to homeless kids in Polis, she takes them in and she shelters them and helps them get back on their feet and she helped Lexa, Anya and I get through school and set up afterwards. Anya of the three of us spent the most time there she basically calls that place home.” Lincoln said.

“Why was she there so long?” Monty asked.

“When she was about four, during the last time there was a Power Rangers team she lost her parents and house and the shelter she was using all in a short space of time. She hasn’t liked the Rangers since, I hadn’t realised just how deep that hurt and pain had run.” Lexa said, slightly guilt for pushing something so difficult on Anya with no warning or anything.

“You three should start trying to morph, might need time to get it right.” Raven said as Monty and Lincoln grabbed their coins, Lexa couldn’t because she was driving.

Raven sat quietly and let Monty and Lincoln focus in the way that they needed to and was eventually rewarded with a yellow and a red flash and two new armoured Rangers. She looked over to Lexa and raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I’m driving can’t focus, besides Becca said something about Sidney’s misuse of my coin draining its power too much. I have no idea if I will even be able to morph” Lexa said sadly as they pulled into Polis City and she started taking turns sharply down the lesser used roads to get to Niylah’s faster.

The car screeched to a halt next to Octavia’s zord and within sight of the three rangers battling a man wearing a suit of flames. The man turned and Lexa and Lincoln both recognised the scar; Carl Emerson, the social worker who had tried to bring down Niylah’s more times than they wanted to count. Lincoln let out a growl as leapt into the fray with Monty following right behind him. Lexa looked at Raven still seated in the passenger seat next to her.

“Are you going to be all right here by yourself?” Lexa asked kindly, trying not to be offensive but feeling as though she failed.

“Yeah I will, now get your armour on and save Niylah’s” Raven said pointing at the battle that was finally starting to turn into the Rangers’ favour.

Lexa held her coin and focused, it grew warm slowly and she felt it tug and she followed it, the warmth spread as her mind focused on saving them all. She felt a surge of heat and soon she was standing there in vivid green armour, not the oxidised toxic green Sidney had worn but proper vibrant green, she felt the Dragon Dagger materialise in the sheath on her thigh from where she had left it at her house. A comforting weight settled across her shoulders and looking down she had a golden shield reaching down to her navel. Looking at the fight she was ready to join she leapt into action.

As Lexa landed and the team of Rangers was finally for the first time fully assembled and morphed surrounding Emerson Lexa felt good. All her hard work had paid off and the team was together for the moment at least.

“Oh look it’s a fucking pyjama party now. Rangers this won’t be the last time we meet” Emerson yelled spinning into a tornado of flames and disappearing.

Clarke, Anya and Octavia groaned out and slumped to the ground in pain and exhaustion with Lincoln, Monty and Lexa just breathing out with relief.

The six of them were about to let their armour drop when they heard Niylah’s voice shouting out “Rangers keep that armour up and get in here, and grab that girl with the crutches too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a cliffhanger, well it's not the worst one I've ever done but hopefully you guys won't have to wait very long for it to be resolved. Kudos and Comments are always loved and if you want to squee or yell at me on tumblr just changed it to Serenity-Searcher. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it feel free to let me know.


	5. Arc 2 Dante's Inferno (Kindling)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers are recovering from their battle with Carl Emerson and face several revelations along the way to charging Lexa's coin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not the happiest with this chapter so if it feels off that's probably why. Hopefully it progresses things along and fills up a hole or two in the back stories. If anyone has anything to say to improve the feel or flow of this chapter be my guest.

Arc 2 Dante’s Inferno (Kindling)

Lexa’s armour glowed with a dull green and then faded away not long after the seven of them had entered Niylah’s basement causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

“Lexa why did you let it drop?” Lincoln asked.

“I didn’t, it just disappeared.” Lexa said with confusion “Maybe it’s part of what Becca meant when she said the Green Coin is low on power, she did also say that it would be recharged when we all morphed together so I have no idea whats happening.”

“We haven’t actually morphed together” Clarke said, the first words she had said since Lexa had managed to morph.

“We were all just in our armour why haven’t we morphed together?” Lexa asked.

“We morphed individually one at a time. Recharging your coin will need to have all of us in the Command Centre central chamber where the Morphing Grid is close to the surface.” Octavia said.

“Well we have all of us here why don’t we just go from here to the Command Centre to recharge the coin afterwards?” Anya asked. Everyone’s eyes flicked to Clarke, she had helped Anya and morphed but was she back or was she still haunted?

“I’ll help you recharge the coin but I still need space” Clarke said not looking at anybody.

“You might not have a choice Blue” Niylah said as she opened a door to a room with a large table with a holographic screen taking up most of the surface. The Rangers and Raven took a seat and let their armour drop, revealing their identities. Niylah looked at Lincoln, Lexa and Anya with pride and smiled. The other three she didn’t recognise. “You three from Arkadia?” Niylah asked.

“Yeah, so is Raven and the rest of the old team, all of us were from Arkadia. Does it matter?” Octavia said watching as Clarke seemed to close off and shut down.

“You haven’t seen what the Council has decided?” Niylah asked, face wide with shock. “Councillor Jaha has decided that after the death of his son at Hakeldama by the Power Rangers he does not want them in his city anymore. No definitive threats just saying that Arkadia will not approve of their presence.”

“Fucking brilliant, my mother’s on that council and she lets Jaha be the fucking idiot he is. Pike isn’t involved yet is he?” Clarke asked anger bringing her back to the conversation briefly.

“His name hasn’t come up, yet.” Niylah said, knowing what the overzealous military man was like.

“Meanwhile Polis has a Cage Emerson running wild burning down the place with crazy fire powers.” Anya growled, hatred for that man running strong and deep within her, today’s fight had only deepened it.

“It’s worse than that Anya look at this.” Niylah hit some buttons on the table and it brought up a three dimensional map of Polis. “Emerson hit my place but three other shelters and orphanages all got hit at the same time. Same profile, somebody shows up in a red suit and then suddenly the place goes up in flames. I think it’s safe to assume that whatever gave Emerson his powers has created a lot more.” The Rangers looked at each other with dread, they had barely held their own against Emerson alone.

“I know it seems impossible, trust me I’ve been where you guys are. I was a member of the last team. Most of the fighting happened in Polis and it had caused so much damage that I started to spend almost all of my time outside of uniform here, building it up so I could take all the orphans and street rats. I’m proud of how you three have turned out, makes me feel like I did something right.” Niylah said, looking over the three from Polis

“Oh so it was guilt that made you take care of us? You’re part of the reason I’m alone.” Anya said bitterly moving as though to stand and leave.

“Partly yes Anya. Clarke might understand the point I’m trying to make here; guilt is a powerful driving force and being a Power Ranger gives you a lot of things you feel guilty for. The alternative is to walk away and let the world be ruined, what is the worse choice?” Niylah said sadly looking between Clarke and Anya.

“Worst choice is making no choice,” Clarke said, she was still flat and down and the light behind her eyes was missing but she was engaging and realising that her choices were truly limited. Her guilt was weighing her down but that guilt stemmed from the reason Arkadia and Polis were still standing today even as forces conspired to ruin them.

“So why hit all the places street rats call home and the orphanages? What’s to gain from that type of strike?” Lexa asked looking at the map, the attacked had hit four different corners of the city. “This could have been a weapons test, see how effective their burning men are.” Her out loud musing got them all thinking.

“The other obvious alternative was this was an extermination attempt, hit heaps of children and teenagers at once; kill Power Rangers or future Power Rangers at the same time.” Clarke said.

“Why would they be hunting down future Rangers?” Monty asked while Niylah, Octavia and Raven all realised exactly what Clarke was getting at and how likely it really was.

“It means that it was someone my team fought and defeated. They must have survived and been working on revenge.” Niylah said realising that not only had she made Anya’s life difficult when she was young but now it seemed as though she was making her time as a Power Ranger even harder. “I’m sorry Anya.” The apology was heartfelt and tried to encompass everything that Niylah had done.

“I understand, thank you for apologising. I guess it’s time to start repaying my debts to you, starting with Emerson.” Anya said eyes flaring with the mention of the man that had caused her so much grief growing up and less than an hour ago tried to kill her.

“What’s your next move?” Niylah asked looking for a leader amongst the assembled Rangers. The people from Arkadia all looked towards Clarke, broken expression on her face while the Polis trio looked to Lexa, jaw set and eyes hard.

“We need to get to the Command Centre, recharge the Green Coin, Lexa can take care of you guys next.” Clarke said looking anywhere that wasn’t a person. Lexa felt something for Clarke, she had seen her confident, she had seen her angry but now she was totally broken and shattered. It hurt Lexa to see how she had fallen since Hakeldama.

“We still need you Clarke” Lexa said, knowing that the words would sound empty but the truth was there, Clarke had made the call and with a few words made all six Power Rangers appear and fight. Clarke had more of an impact on them all than even she knew, Lexa didn’t know how to explain it but it was there.

“Only to recharge the coin, I’m sure you’ll find everything you need without me.” Clarke said. Everybody looked at Clarke as though they were about to complain but something made them look to Lexa as well. Lexa gave a slight shake of her head; now was not the time.

“It seems it must be this way.” Lexa said looking sadly at Clarke, she had to find a way to say everything that was on her mind and tell Clarke that even if she wanted nothing more to do with the Rangers they still wanted Clarke in their lives. “Can we use this place as a secondary base Niylah? The Command Centre is not in the best location, especially if we are having to race all over Polis.” Lexa said looking to Niylah and taking charge for the moment. Every time Lexa took control over a situation she felt like she was stepping in to Clarke’s place and it just felt wrong.

“That is part of the purpose of this room. My team used it during our battles. We need to get your coin charged Lexa, let’s go.” Niylah said getting everybody moving.

…

Clarke felt a shiver run down her spine as she walked into Becca’s room; the last time she was here had been just hours after Hakeldama and she had yelled and screamed at Becca. She had basically told Becca to go fuck herself, quit the Rangers and left Lexa to pick up the pieces of a total disaster. Somehow she had not left the Rangers, Lexa had rebuilt them and not only did Lexa believe she still had a place amongst them but the Rangers wouldn’t function without her. Clarke’s stomach churned with the guilt, uncertain that she even deserved this chance.

They were greeted by a robot of a woman, similar in appearance to Becca made of silver metal and given the appearance of a red dress. This was ALIE the android that handled all the physical aspects of running the Command Centre. Clarke let the rest of the group all walk in ahead of her, trying to avoid ALIE and Becca’s notice.

“Raven it is good to see you back here, it has been far too long since you were here.” ALIE said in her pleasant female voice.

“ALIE it is nice to be back, I need your help with something.” Raven said gesturing to where her leg had once been. “Besides I feel as though I could use my tech head wizardry to help out here.” Raven said looking around.

“Your help will be appreciated; the repairs on most of the zords are still underway.” ALIE said and then seemed to notice Raven’s missing limb. “I believe we need to finish repairs on you first.”

Raven laughed at ALIE’s observations and phrasing. “Yeah let’s get me a new leg” Raven said as she clapped ALIE on the shoulder and the two of them walked down to one of the many workshops.

Clarke watched them down the hallway with a strange feeling in her gut, guilt that she had basically made all the decisions that led to Raven losing her leg and the death of Finn and Wells; at least Raven’s best skills and talents weren’t taken away from her. It was a small mercy and Clarke had to hang on to the small things at the moment.

Breaking out of her thoughts before she spiralled too deeply she looked over to where the rest of the Rangers were assembling at their podiums as Niylah was talking with Becca, trying to get some of the features and systems of the Command Centre allowed access from her bunker in Polis. Clarke caught Lexa’s brilliant green eyes and Lexa quickly looked away. She had been watching her but not in fear or worry; the closest emotion Clarke could read from them was concern but it didn’t make much sense. Why would Lexa be so concerned?

Clarke really wanted to get out of the Command Centre, her thoughts all spiralled downwards quickly not matter what train she followed. She took her place on the blue podium and looked at the other Rangers and how they were all coping with this moment. Lincoln had boyish glee in his eyes, Anya seemed determined, Octavia was ready and as solid as ever, Monty was smiling but Clarke could see hew still felt slightly insecure and Lexa was regal, stoic and strong. Clarke was impressed with Lexa’s attitude and strength.

It was Lexa who had gathered everybody together even Anya was loyal to her and Clarke had just up and left, she was still not sure she could ever fit in to this new team.

“Rangers you have all morphed individually morphed and now in the presence of the Morphing Grid you can morph together and the sheer output on energy will recharge the Green Power Coin.” Becca said “Lexa I am impressed and proud of your efforts to assemble this new team of new and old members. Clarke it is good to see you back”

Clarke couldn’t say anything; after the way she had left Becca she expected hostility from the ancient being. This understanding made Clarke’s stomach churn, three hundred people dead and none of the people who knew Clarke was involved had blamed her in any way. Why had nobody blamed her? Where was all the hatred? It was making Clarke feel uncomfortable that she hated herself so much or were they all just lying to her and hating her for killing so many people trying to save the region?

“Draw your coins and focus on the power within yourselves and each other. Find your purpose and use it” Becca said coaching them through the process. Clarke focused and felt the primal powers of her Blue Coin and the triceratops rampage through her. It was familiar and comforting and she felt her armour form around her.

The other rangers were all going through similar things, a simultaneous morph here where the Morphing Grid was so close to the surface they could get brief flashes of feeling from the other rangers. Lincoln, Anya, Monty and Octavia all gave off brief flashes of enjoyment a sensation of their prehistoric creature’s power and their awe at the display in front of them. Clarke for some strange reason got far more of Lexa’s thoughts and feelings than any of the others.

 _“This bond is incredible, no wonder Clarke was devastated, losing two friends would be bad enough but having felt what they feel losing anyone would devastate you. It was hard enough losing my family, this is something more. I’ve seen glimpses of the girl she used to be under all her pain and guilt. I don’t even blame her for the accident, that’s all it was, an accident. If she does decide to stay out of the Rangers I’d hate to see her totally leave.”_ Lexa’s thoughts ran wild through Clarke’s head and she also felt the majesty and strength of the dragon that provided Lexa with her power.

The thoughts confused Clarke but she couldn’t focus on them for too long at the moment because the morphing grid spewed out a series of brightly glowing orbs that slammed into each ranger. Clarke felt six different flashes of pain and the roars of each of their primordial beasts roaring and a surge of strength. The Morphing Grid had recharged Lexa’s coin and enhanced all of the Rangers. It was as if it knew that there were threats out there more dangerous than ever. That or Becca had boosted their power.

“When six Rangers unite as one it brings out their true power; to be the heroes that you are destined to be. Rangers you will need to take the hidden exit, someone with the strange red suits in wandering around near the Rocks of Dawn.” Becca said.

“Is there a reason we can’t just go and take them out?” Octavia asked spoiling for a fight.

“Polis High School is currently under attack from another of the burning people.” Becca said as ALIE and Raven re-joined them. Raven still using her crutches to support her as she got used to her brand new silver metal leg.

“Niylah can you make sure Raven gets out safe?” Lexa asked.

“Actually I’m staying here for a while; the zords still need repairs and I’m thinking ALIE and I can work on some improvements.” Raven said with a proper smile and purpose for the first time since Hakeldama.

“Looks like you can’t retire just yet Clarke, come on we need to get to Polis High.” Lexa said as Octavia lead the way through the Command Centre to the rear exit hidden from all tourists and prying eyes. The rangers kept a car or two here for cases where a subtle getaway was needed. It wasn’t often but it had happened before. The six of them piled into the van and sped off out of the cave and onto the highway speeding towards Polis.

…

Lexa drove down the highway pretending not to notice that Clarke was basically watching her with a puzzled expression on her face the whole drive. It was to be expected especially if what Lexa had experienced during the group morph had gone both ways. Lexa had experienced brief flashes of feelings from the other four but from Clarke she had gotten a much different experience. She had felt the triceratops rampaging through her, almost limitless power but refined and controlled by charging. Her thoughts had also flowed into her and it had given Lexa a deeper insight into the beautiful woman next to her.

Her thoughts had been a mess of wondering why none of the rangers had blamed her, why Becca had not a negative response to her return, and wondering if she would ever be accepted by the team. Being in the Command Centre had been a constant struggle for Clarke trying to keep her wildly changing thoughts away from the dark well that they seemed to want to fall into in the Command Centre. Lexa finally managed to get a good long look at Clarke’s face she looked exhausted, she was probably already past her limit and now she was going in to battle yet again.

Looking into the rear view mirror Lexa saw the other four preparing themselves in their own way. Monty was the least experience in physical combat  and was reading something on his phone mouthing to himself, Anya was staring out the window her face a particularly hard shade of bitch, Lincoln was leaning back relaxed and looking at his coin and Octavia who had been through this countless times was calm and focused. Even sitting down Lexa thought that out of them all she would least like to meet Octavia in a fight.

The streets of Polis where starting to fill up with cars speeding in the opposite direction, looking up Lexa could see a plume of smoke coming from the direction of Polis High.

“It’s already started, guys we need to armour up.” Lexa said pointing in the direction of the smoke. Instantly the five others in the car stopped what they were doing and grabbed their coins. As Lexa pulled the van to a screeching halt out the front of Polis High there were six flashes of colour from within the van and then the six Power Rangers burst out fully armoured.

In front of the school stood a burning Carl Emerson who gave a vicious evil laugh when he saw the Rangers assembled against him.

“So you come back for round two? Unfortunately it’s too late the Dante Fire has reached its full power and now I and all the other Burning Soldiers are unstoppable. The six of you will die and the Wallace family will finally return to its rightful place as the most powerful family and nothing will be spared the flame.” Emerson said.

As one the Rangers leapt into battle against their foe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers all for reading kudos make me smile and comments make my day (but please not just asking for more) any constructive criticism to improve the flow and feel of this chapter will be most welcomed. As always check me out on tumblr if you need to squee at me at Serenity-Searcher and I will see you next time.


	6. Dante's Inferno (Burning)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Power Rangers arrive at Polis High for their rematch with Carl Emerson. Lexa and Clarke have a moment.

Arc 2 Dante’s Inferno (Burning)

 

“Lexa it’s your team you call the shots” Clarke said, wanting to see how Lexa worked as a leader, especially if she was going to leave her in charge of the Rangers. Lexa nodded and she started giving her instructions.

“Spread out two man teams, weapons out come at him from three angles” Lexa said bringing out a Ranger version of the ceremonial dragon longsword from Natblida Dojo. The other rangers summoned their own weapons and split into pairs; Octavia and Monty, Lincoln and Anya and that left Clarke to once again sight side by side with Lexa.

Each Ranger’s armour had the ability to summon a weapon. Each colour Ranger had a weapon based on their animal’s power but it was not always the case.

Octavia drew out her mastodon axe and Monty drew out twin daggers hilts resembling his new Saber Tooth Zord and the blades were like the canine teeth. Lincoln drew out a red longsword with the hilt like tyrannosaurus jaws. Anya’s weapon was a bow like the pterodactyl wings. Clarke instead of her old trident drew out a blue version of Finn’s old red longsword; the one she had used in her final battle with Sidney. Clarke seemed surprised that the sword had formed instead of her trident.

Reacting to their weapons Emerson created a sword made of pure fire, and launched himself at Clarke and Lexa. Clarke caught the blow on her sword and felt it vibrate all the way up to her ear. That attack was powerful and Clarke was too slow to block his follow up attack but thankfully Lexa was able to block it for her. Clarke heard a grunt of effort as Lexa turned Emerson’s blade aside.

An arrow landed in Emerson’s shoulder and then exploded in a burst of pink light, causing the man to be knocked forward in pain. He stood and with a deep breath in and out covered the area in a thick black smokescreen.

“Clarke? What’s our move here?” Lexa asked she was starting to doubt herself, Clarke could feel it, and there was something here that scared her.

“Helmets have heat vision and built in smoke filters, don’t panic just swap the visor mode.” Clarke said, despite all her doubts and misgivings moments like these she could just push everything aside and do what needed to be done; it was part of why she had become the leader.

As Clarke swapped visor modes so she could see through the smoke the area where Emerson had been moments ago was suddenly filled with five human shapes. Emerson was easily identifiable as the largest one as he was still holding his flaming sword but the other four seemed to be less human.

They were shorter and had longer thinner arms with claws on the end and wings on their backs. They appeared like little fiendish devils. The wind picked up and the thick smoke screen quickly thinned allowing the Rangers to get a much closer look at the fiery devil creatures and their blistery red skin, sharp fangs and burning claws. They were hideous and fierce. The four devils launched themselves at the Octavia, Lincoln, Anya and Monty. Emerson kept up his vicious attack on Lexa and Clarke.

…

Octavia was on familiar ground again; she had her axe in hand fighting against something terrible in her armour, Clarke was calling the shots and Raven was…not here. Realising that it was no longer Raven in the pink armour unsettled her and highlighted just how much everything had changed in the last few weeks. Four new Rangers and two of her friends dead and Raven without one of her legs.

As the monster slashed out again and Octavia caught the claws with her axe and forced her attention back into the fight. Lack of concentration was costly in moments like this. As the fiend slashed rapidly at her Octavia had to block repeated slashes and back peddling.

Octavia finally opened up some space and managed to start slashing back at the creature with her axe. The creature caught her axe blade and managed to turn it aside and she slammed it into the ground. This movement left the creature vulnerable allowing Octavia to get a strong kick into the creature’s chest and she felt something cave.

The creature gurgled and struggled to get back to its feet. There was a large boot shaped dent in its chest. The devils seemed to be very fragile if you could get past its defences.

“These things are fragile, get past its defences and it drops” Octavia said and the realised that Monty had little to no combat experience and he was in trouble.

“Anyone able to help me?” Monty asked as he started to panic.

“Monty just hang on I’m coming” Octavia said as she looked across the courtyard to where Monty was backed up against the fence as the creature attacked him with wide sweeping strikes that he barely managed to deflect.

Octavia raced across the courtyard but was cut off by a searing blast of fire from Emerson as he fought against Clarke and Lexa. The two leaders were fighting in perfect sync without speaking, it was incredible. Octavia had to get to Monty faster.

The smoke and flames gave the race across the courtyard to Monty the feeling of a hellish landscape to save her friend. Octavia and the rest of the old team would go through hell for each other and this new team was likely to do the same.

Monty tripped over and the fiend slashed out leaving a trio of burning scratches across his chest. The lines stayed on fire and Monty yelled in pain, Octavia couldn’t hesitate anymore and started to run full pelt ignoring the explosions and other flames in order to rescue her friend. The armour wasn’t perfect at keeping out the heat but Octavia didn’t care; a few licks of flame was nothing compared to Monty’s danger.

She reached the fiend and with a mighty swing of her axe cleaved the monster in two. The monster burst into flames causing Octavia and Monty to lean back to avoid the blast of flame.

“Thanks Octavia” Monty said wincing in pain and clutching at the claw burns in his side. The two of them looked across the hellish battlefield and saw that Lincoln and Anya had disposed of their own opponents leaving just Emerson in battle against Clarke and Lexa. The man they were fighting had an enraged, demented look on his face as more of his body turned into flames.

…

Lexa felt a fist like a sledgehammer strike her in the chest and was sent flying, slamming into the ground a distance away. The impact sent stars spinning across Lexa’s vision. Clarke couldn’t watch and wait for Lexa to get up because Emerson, half his face made of fire launched brutal attacks right at Clarke.

Lying there on the ground Lexa realised that he was getting stronger as more of his body turned to fire. Fighting a wave of dizziness and a burning chest Lexa realised that the only way to stop him was to put out the fire.

“Rangers, we need to put his fire out.” Lexa said, “Split up find a way to extinguish him, water or a fire extinguisher or something. Clarke and I will keep him busy; don’t take too long, he’s getting stronger.” Lexa said exhaling heavily and throwing herself back in to the battle with Emerson.

Lexa seamlessly joined the battle next to Clarke. The girls had a strange, weird almost telepathic ability to read each other’s moves; where one parried the other thrusted, one feinted and their opponent dodged into the others attack. It was this uncanny teamwork that was keeping them in this fight as Emerson slowly turned more and more into fire and got stronger.

Lexa was slightly slowed down by the dull ache and slight throbbing in her head from that last hit, and it was forcing Clarke to work harder to compensate for Lexa’s injury. The constant defensive movements were frustrating Lexa and Clarke.

“This is frustrating, we’re just letting him dictate the flow of the battle.” Lexa said and with that the two girls adjusted their feet and then started to slash back, faster and fiercer.

The slight change pushed Emerson on to the defensive for the first time all day. Lexa went in low with her blade as Clarke went high finally letting a sword edge slide along Emerson’s skin on his arm, revealing a strange liquid fire resembling lava instead of blood.

Emerson gave an evil grin distorted by the left half of his face being on fire as he flicked his wrist and sent the lava at the girls. Lexa stood still in shock as Clarke moved to catch the lava on her own arm. The scream of agony echoed through her helmet communicator and she could hear the scream outside as well, Clarke was in so much pain.

Everything that Emerson had done suddenly seemed to pale in comparison to causing such intense screams of agony from the girl in front of her. The man had caused Lexa, Lincoln, Anya and Niylah years of anguish each and almost cost them everything on several occasions but it was Clarke’s pain that caused a fury unlike any Lexa had ever felt. It was like her dragon was roaring its unchecked and primal rage at the heavens.

Using the anger of herself and her dragon she lunged forward, knocking Emerson’s sword out of the way with her own Lexa threw all her weight into a single punch from her right hand, roaring as she did so. Lexa felt bones under her fist break and she was rewarded with a spurt of superheated lava blood from his nose. Pressing her advantage Lexa punched and kicked and knocked Emerson to the ground and advanced on him, sword ready like a predator. Lexa’s advance was stopped by a Clarke’s weak voice coming through her headset.

“Lexa, help.” Clarke’s voice was weak and cracked from the incredible scream moments before, she was clearly still in pain. Lexa raced over to Clarke keeping an eye on the prone body of Emerson to see how she could help.

The arm of Clarke’s armour was bubbling, hissing and smoking and she couldn’t withdraw the armour at risk of the lava landing on her arm.

“Just rip the whole panel off” Clarke said through the pain. Without waiting Lexa grabbed the panel that went from wrist to elbow and pulled the piece free, flinging it aside. She gasped in horror at the terrible burns that had been left on Clarke’s arm even through the suit. “Lexa look out” Clarke said pushing her to the side as Emerson returned swinging his burning sword through the air that Lexa had just occupied. 

Emerson advanced on the two girls as they lay on the ground completely defenceless but was stopped by a large cylindrical object flying into hit, hitting him on the shoulder. Lexa recognised the object as a fire extinguisher a moment before an arrow flew into it and exploded releasing a cloud of white foam that coated Emerson reducing the amount of flames on his body.

Lexa’s theory was proven right as Emerson was now slower than he had been a few moments before and his sword strikes didn’t threaten to make her arms go numb with each block. Clarke quickly re-joined Lexa but she was heavily favouring her unburnt right arm for her sword. The foam from the extinguisher was quickly dropping off and Emerson was burning brighter and stronger than before.

“So your theory was correct but how are we going to keep the flames out long enough to take him down?” Clarke said, Lexa could still hear a bit of pain in her voice.

“We’re coming guys just hold on a little longer” Lincoln’s voice came through the headset with sirens in the background.

“Is that what I think it is Lincoln? You know Emori is going to be pissed if you did it again right?” Lexa asked slightly smirking knowing exactly what Lincoln had done and how Emori would react to him borrowing a fire truck after last time.

“It’s a fire truck Clarke” Octavia said, she sounded like she was with Lincoln.

“I’m missing a joke here but also we have a crazy social worker made of fire so can we focus?” Clarke said.

“Right sorry, fire engine in bound, just keep him busy until they arrive.” Lexa said throwing herself back at Emerson as another fire extinguisher came flying towards him which Anya shot out of the air dousing him in foam again.

“Don’t mean to rush you but we only have two extinguishers left. Get your arse here Lincoln” Anya said knowing that they wouldn’t be able to buy much more time with what they had left.

Lexa and Clarke were back on the offensive as Emerson struggled to deal with the sudden loss of speed and power. The girls were in perfect sync and landed another thin cut this time across Emerson’s right shoulder. The roar of pain and sudden leaking of lava blood brought his flames back with a vengeance.

The return of his flames exploded outwards like a bomb, sending Lexa and Clarke flying backwards. The fierce flames crackled and raged causing Monty and Anya to throw in and shoot another fire extinguisher. It didn’t have the hoped for effect though, the rage was sustaining and fuelling the flames.

“Well that’s just not fucking fair” Anya said in surprise.

“He’s disobeying the laws of physics, and you say it’s not fair?” Monty yelled incredulously throwing their last extinguisher which Anya shot out of the air again dousing Emerson in foam again. The back to back foam dousing lowered the flames enough for Clarke and Lexa to get back in to the fight

It was as Lexa and Emerson’s blades clashed once again the fire engine that Lincoln and Octavia had “commandeered, being driven by a woman with dirty blonde hair and a stylised blue scar tattoo running up her face.

“So they got Emori to come along with it, that’s really helpful” Anya said racing over to help the fire engine get the hose and water ready.

Emerson had during his transformation lost the ability to speak and was now communicating purely by enraged screams. As Anya and Monty raced to the fire truck Emerson let off a terrible shriek and launched a series of fireballs at the truck. Anya used her explosive arrows to shoot two out of the air while Octavia cleaved one in half with her axe.

“Maybe hurry things up here guys, we can’t play dead man’s volley here forever” Anya said as she shot another and Octavia batted one aside.

“This is totally crazy” Lexa said. Emerson was able to duel Clarke and Lexa together and shoot fireballs out of his back in the direction of the firetruck, thankfully they had everybody here or this would have been a very different fight.

“Got it” Lincoln said as they finished connected the hose and getting the water pumped and ready. He stood up and let loose a rocketing blast of water from the hose straight into the back of Emerson. The burning man was enveloped in steam for a few seconds but re-emerged angry without his flaming sword. The intense water had doused a lot of his power allowing Lexa and Clarke to land a fatal blow by driving both their swords into his heart.

Emerson’s body reacted strangely to the fatal blow; his body turned into solid rock which cracked revealing his lava like blood and fell apart leaving a pool of rapidly cooling lava and rock, some of which still had Emerson’s facial features. 

Anya, Lincoln and Lexa looked at the pool that had once been the greatest difficulty in their lives and all exhaled in relief. Emerson was finally gone for good. The relief that Lexa was feeling soon faded away to a feeling of dread and helplessness. Something had given that monster the powers he had just used, something potentially even worse and seeking destruction of the Power Rangers and they didn’t care if Polis burned to achieve that goal.

…

Clarke was resting and recuperating at Niylah’s after the fierce battle, focusing on the terrible burn on her forearm she had received. The rest of the Rangers were here too, most of them had fallen asleep not long after arriving. Clarke could hear Lexa doing stuff in the room next door so she was still awake, the muffled sounds were part comforting part unsettling. The comfort stemmed from the fact that Clarke wasn’t the only one still awake but unsettling because the way Lexa was moving about her room she seemed troubled.

After her forearm burn Clarke went around her body checking on the smaller cuts and burns she had received and now that the biggest injury was taken care of they were all stinging and hurting like hell.

The sounds of movement from Lexa’s room stopped and Clarke thought she was finally falling asleep but was surprised when the sounds of a flute playing softly starting floating through the wall. Mesmerized Clarke sat and listened for a while before getting up to follow the sound to Lexa’s room next door and stood and watched her from the doorway.

Lexa was leaning back on an old high backed wooden chair playing the Dragon Dagger as a flute. It was a unique property of the dagger that allowed the Green Ranger to control the Dragonzord. A unique zord that was partly sentient and raging and powerful, controlled by the flute.

The music that Lexa was playing was beautiful, slightly haunting with a deep sadness buried within. The overall effect was calming and allowed Clarke to see deeper into Lexa’s layers. There was the external layer, she was confident and strong and capable but beneath that was an interesting layer. She had been through hell as a child and was still dealing with the impact of that, there was also a relief that one of the figures that had tormented her for years was finally gone. As Clarke watched and saw deeper into Lexa than ever she saw green eyes open and catch her staring.

“Hello Clarke” Lexa said, her voice was not its usual strong hard self, it was softer and sweeter, Clarke felt something stir inside at Lexa’s soft look. “I was meaning to come see you” Lexa aid.

“You were?” Clarke asked, it was strange being caught staring, seeing a different, softer side of Lexa and then being told that Lexa was wanting to talk to her.

“I wanted to say thank you, for today. You saved my life, kept the rangers together and trusted me. So thank you.” Lexa said softly. She was tired and injured and had let her walls down. Clarke saw cuts and burns on her arms and gestured to them.

“Want me to look at those?” Clarke asked, neither of them were healing like they expected which was giving Clarke some trouble trying to match it up. Was it just the fire? Was it something about their powers weakening? Or was there something else that Emerson had that had reduced their healing?

“Please,” Lexa said and held out her arms where there were several cuts and burns which Clarke bandaged. The two sat in silence while Clarke worked for a while and it calmed Clarke the comfortable silence that they shared. “Anywhere else need attention?” Clarke asked once the arms had been taken care of.

“Yeah there’s a spot on my back” Lexa said hesitantly

“It’s ok Lexa, you can trust me” Clarke said, not entirely sure of the damage that had been inflicted on Lexa, today or in the past.

“I do trust you Clarke” Lexa said turning and peeling off her shirt. The sight of Lexa’s back made Clarke gasp in shock. Intricate tattoos seemed to be a common occurrence in Polis and they were most often seen alongside scars and Lexa was no exception.

Her tattoo was an intricate design of a dozen circles connected with dotted lines that looked like things falling to earth. Unfortunately around the tattoo was a large ugly scar like a lightning strike, running down from the edge of her left shoulder blade to the top of her left hip bone. The injury Clarke was looking to treat was a large patch of skin between her shoulder blades turn and shredded from repeated sliding along the ground, tiny bits of gravel were lodged in there.

“Ok there’s some gravel I need to get out of there, it’s going to hurt, talk to me while I work?” Clarke aid getting the supplies she needed from the first aid kit.

“What about?” Lexa asked.

“Anything, tell me about Polis, tell me about your boyfriends” Clarke said as she reached to grab a rock from the flesh. Lexa hissed in pain.

“Boyfriends? That’s hilarious I am so gay I make rainbows look straight” Lexa said a weak smile flashing across her face as Clarke kept cleaning the injury.

“See learning already. I’m bisexual myself so no judgement here, hell you’re probably luckier since you don’t have the chance to be attracted to absolute dickbags.” Clarke said earning a smile from Lexa.

“Maybe I am at that, Costia wasnn’t though, she earned the attention from the biggest dickbag we’ve met: Emerson.” Lexa said sadly lost in recollection.

“What happened?” Clarke asked sensitively.

“Emerson threatened to move Costia across the country so we took a car and made a stupid mistake. I crashed it and we ended up in hospital, I got these scars and Emerson turned off Costia’s life support when her family just left her there. The Polis social worker problems go back a very long way.” Lexa said sadness and vulnerability echoing through her words.

“That’s terrible” Clarke said sympathy and empathy welling up through her. Now she knew why Lexa was so broken inside and why she had understood Clarke’s guilt; she was dealing with a similar burden.

“It is, the pain will never go away.” Lexa said.

“So how are you still going so strong living with that pain?” Clarke asked, scared of the answer she will get.

“It’s not easy, I just try and do what I can for people and if being a Power Ranger helps me do good then being a Power Ranger is what I’ll do.” Lexa said.

“So redemption is your coping mechanism?” Clarke said.

“Well when you put it like that it does sounds kinda stupid. I don’t know how else to explain it but it’s how I keep myself together. Maybe this means I won’t have to be strong on my own anymore.” Lexa said, wincing as Clarke dug the last of the gravel out of her back.

“Maybe it does” Clarke agreed and the two descended into companionable silence once more.

Lexa pulled out the Dragon Dagger again and gestured as though to ask Clarke if she was ok with it being played again.

“Play it, your music is beautiful” Clarke said. Lexa smiled and started playing her hauntingly beautiful music again.


	7. Dante's Inferno (Smouldering)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team takes a quiet day and plan their next move and discuss some things that they need to do.  
> Clarke and Lexa have some soft moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so Clarke's nightmare is in italics and I don't know how it's going to read to some people. So just a warning it involves killing some people and multiple Clarkes so if you feel you need to skip the italics.

Dante’s Inferno 3 (Smouldering)

“So did you hear Lexa and Blondie chatting into the early hours of the morning?” Anya asked Lincoln as they joined Octavia and Monty for breakfast.

“I heard something like that, Lexa played the flute a bit, and you know how she gets when she’s thoughtful and sad.” Lincoln said.

“What you two talking about?” Octavia asked, she liked Lincoln’s carefree attitude and generally joyful demeanour.

“Just how Lexa and Clarke were talking together all night and still haven’t come down for breakfast.” Anya asked with a smirk and Octavia knew that Lexa was going to get a serious grilling from Anya at some point today.

“Lexa seems to have gotten through Clarke’s grouchy depressive shell, she was such as mess after Hakeldama” Octavia said reaching across Monty for another slice of bacon.

“Clarke seems to be doing something Lexa as well, Lexa sounds like she is actually opening up to someone, she hasn’t done that since Costia. It might be the shared feelings of guilt between them, something to bond over and help heal.” Lincoln said, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling in the direction of Clarke and Lexa’s rooms.

“Should we go wake them up?” Monty asked finally starting to wake up after his coffee, he was always slow in the mornings but able to work well into the night when the occasion required it.

“Let them sleep, Clarke has been having nightmares since Hakeldama, she’s haunted by three hundred ghosts, if she’s sleeping peacefully for once leave her be. Is Lexa similar?” Niylah said as she entered the dining room with Raven walking along behind her.

“Yeah she has nightmares quite often. Let her sleep, although we should check on them around midday if they haven’t emerged. They deserve what peace they can get, especially after their efforts yesterday.” Lincoln said.

“Yeah they saved us, they fought against Emerson alone while we managed to get Emori and the firetruck. Did you see them fighting together? It was like they were one person with two swords.” Anya said clearly impressed with the pair of them.

“I don’t think Clarke’s going to run away again, not after yesterday and last night. If Lexa is helping her find peace she’s going to stick around a little longer.” Octavia said, knowing that all Clarke really wanted at the moment was to find peace within herself. Hakeldama would not be an easy incident to recover from but it sounded like Lexa would be helpful.

“Now before our fearless leaders make their way downstairs I have the most important question for Lincoln. What did Lexa mean when they said Emori isn’t going to be happy if you stole one again?” Octavia asked laughing as Lincoln’s wide grin grew to split his face in half with mirth.

“That would be referencing the time where during celebrations after we won the football championship we got a little bit wild. At some point during the night we ended up at a place where a few firetrucks were attending a fire. A few of us tried to borrow one, yeah we know drunk driving not a good idea. We got caught and most of us got thrown off but I had passed out on top. So the next morning Emori found me sleeping soundly, she woke my hungover ass up and offered to give me a lift back to Niylah’s. I of course jumped into the driver’s side of the fire truck and was trying to start it before she “removed me” and threw me in the back seat of her car. Most of the time we embellish that story to where I manage to steal it and am halfway down the freeway before Emori catches me.” Lincoln said.

“That’s actually the first time in years he’s told the story completely true. He’s not trying to impress you with his story, that’s rare. Lincoln what’s special about Octavia?” Anya asked gently prodding him with her finger.

“She’s a great team member, no real point lying to each other” Lincoln said, looking away. He wasn’t lying but he wasn’t telling the whole truth. Octavia let it slide, what he wasn’t saying couldn’t have been that important; besides he was more fun carefree. The four rangers alongside Niylah and Raven just enjoyed each other’s company and breakfast together, a stress free moment for everyone was to be taken advantage of when available.

…

Lexa woke up feeling pleasantly warm and surprisingly well rested and she realised that she hadn’t had a nightmare. Opening her eyes she was met with a vision of gold; Clarke’s hair. The two of them had talked well into the night and then ended up falling asleep together. It was nice and the lack of nightmares was not lost of Lexa. Lexa was broken out of her thoughts by Clarke stirring alongside her.

Expecting Clarke to be embarrassed at falling asleep next to her Lexa sighed. Clarke stiffened as she realised that Lexa was awake before relaxing into Lexa and dragging her arm across her.

The feeling of Clarke snuggling back into her made Lexa’s heart melt.

“How did you sleep Clarke?” Lexa asked softly.

“Better than I have since Hakeldama. First night of no nightmares. Thank you Lexa” Clarke said, she seemed more at ease after a night of no nightmares which is exactly the way Lexa felt. There was a unique bond between them. The moment of calmness and contentment between them was ruined when Clarke’s stomach rumbled loudly causing Lexa to giggle.

“Shut up Lexa” Clarke said swatting at her playfully. The night’s undisturbed rest had done them both good, they were lighter and freer. Lexa let out a squeal and swatted back, giggling.

“Well if it isn’t the teeny gay mouse working her magic once again” came a voice at the door. Looking up the girls in the bed saw Niylah with a wide grin on her face and two steaming mugs in her hands. “It’s midday and the others were going to come in and check on you shortly, I just thought you two would appreciate a coffee before the others wanted to break your cuddle party up. You two looked very comfortable.” Niylah said as she handed the mugs over smiling.

“How much shit are the others going to give us for this?” Lexa asked.

“Only a little, at least until they see this picture” Niylah said showing the girls a photo on her phone of the two of them cuddled up closely with smiles on their faces. “Don’t worry I’ll only bring it out on special occasions.” Niylah laughed while Lexa groaned.

“You say special occasions but you’re going to frame that and put it up in the bar aren’t you? It’s what you always do” Lexa said slightly annoyed but taking a sip of coffee she instantly calmed down.

“Yeah that’s true, just not this time. You two need each other for deeper reasons so I’m being nice. Now get up quick because you have about two minutes before the others come barging upstairs and ruining your moment.” Niylah said leaving them to untangle themselves from each other and crawl out of bed to face the day.

“This was nice Lexa” Clarke said cheeks tinged with pink. Lexa knew it was more than just the sleep without nightmares, the two of them had opened up and found comfort in each other’s presence.

“Very nice, thank you for staying Clarke.” Lexa said as Clarke left the room to go get dressed and ready for the day. Lexa smiled at how comfortable and relaxed she had been since Clarke had walked into her room last night. It felt good, the only downside to it all was that Lexa was now aware of just how tired and strained she had been for so long, finally able to have someone share her burden. Sharing Clarke’s burden was also making the blonde girl seem lighter.

Smiling to herself Lexa grabbed a green shirt from her drawers, got dressed and went downstairs to see the other Rangers.

…

Clarke was sitting with the other Rangers at the large dining table and started to eat by the time Lexa made her way downstairs. Her green shirt with an embroidered dragon on it and worn jeans gave her the appearance of a normal girl, all of them needed a bit of normalcy in their lives in these sort of downtime moments. The sight of Lexa brought a smile to Clarke’s face.

“What’s got you so happy Clarke?” Octavia asked even before Hakeldama Clarke hadn’t been the most open person with her smiles, especially since her father had died so it was nice to be caught smiling openly again. Clarke hated that her friends had all been subjected to her anger and sadness for extended periods, a natural smile like this was rare.

“Slept well, no nightmares” Clarke said simply. No need to tell them that that might have been because she had been cuddled up with Lexa, not yet at least. The lightness of the room was replaced by Niylah opening up the table in order to reveal the holographic display of Polis.

“Creating something like Emerson would take a long time so I thought we could look through the recent fires in Polis, see if we can find a pattern. I know you guys need some lightness and relaxation time so I figured we could just chill and look at these things in a relaxed manner. I’ve got a link to Becca monitoring Polis for new fires so if something comes up we can react to it.” Niylah said.

“Makes sense, should we ask Emori for a bit of help tracking the previous fire history?” Lexa asked, knowing that Lincoln had connections with Emori and somehow he had managed to use them while in Ranger armour so it would be rather helpful.

“I’ll be able to get Emori to help but how would we keep our identities a secret? Becca was pretty intense about the need to keep ourselves secret.” Lincoln said looking around at the Rangers and Raven and Niylah. Everyone who knew their identity was in this room. There was the old saying about how every person added to a secret halved its strength or something. Lincoln wasn’t the best with old sayings but the point was still there.

“Well two options; we either only deal with her in full armour and Raven and Niylah never are in the room or we just let her in on the secret. I can’t think of an easy way to keep it secret and work with her for an extended period of time.” Lexa said, this secret was currently one of the biggest issues with being a Ranger. They needed external allies but an alliance with just faceless armoured people would not last at all. “I think we may need to convince Becca of the need to share our identities with some people. I think things are more complicated than they were when the rules were first formed.” Lexa said looking around the room at her friends many of whom were nodding in agreement. Monty being the exception.

“You ok Monty?” Octavia asked noticing his silence.

“I haven’t had to keep things like this from Jasper before, I don’t know what it’s going to do to us.” Monty said sadly.

“I think we all have people that it’s going to hurt us to keep it all from. I myself hate that I have to keep it from my brother and Clarke’s keeping it from her mother. The alternative is that we tell them and somehow our enemies learn that these people are important to use, capture them and use them against us.” Octavia said looking at Clarke and Raven. The three of them had almost been through that when Wells’ father had been captured for one of Sidney’s schemes. It had been hard on Wells and Clarke who knew him best and that was without Sidney knowing that two Rangers had a serious connection to him.

“That’s true, my team also had a similar issue. It almost cost us everything” Niylah said lost in her thoughts of the past.

“So we let Emori in on the secret? We need her help to track all the fires if we are trying to find out as much as possible about who created Emerson.” Lexa asked, this conversation had covered so much and so little at the same time.

“I vote yes. We can’t do this alone and we can’t have allies so close to us not treated with trust.” Clarke said taking charge again for a moment to get this difficult discussion out of the way.

“I vote yes” Lincoln and Octavia said at the same time.

“I’m in” Lexa said.

“I will vote yes this time but this is a discussion we need to return to at some point” Monty said.

“I agree with Monty” Lexa said.

“I think that’s a very valid point. Every time we want to add somebody into the fold we need to have a conversation like this. Also for very important votes I think we need to be unanimous” Clarke said. It was probably a very important thing for them all to agree on matters like this, especially concerning their secret.

“So Lincoln, Octavia set up a meeting with Emori for tomorrow. I think we still need today to ourselves” Clarke said looking across at Lexa, curious about her reaction to Clarke basically saying she wanted to spend more time with her.

“I need to head back to Arkadia University, Raven you need a ride?” Monty asked.

“Sure thing, there’s plenty of things I can work on back there. Send me a message on the time to meet back here tomorrow.” Raven said to the group as she and Monty headed out to the garage where the Rangers had parked their cars.

“We should probably spend some time in Arkadia too, my mother probably hasn’t noticed I haven’t been home for a few days and Bellamy will probably be wondering where the hell you’ve been as well O.” Clarke said realising that with the last few days being purely Power Ranger based stuff she had partially forgotten that they all had lives outside of their armour.

“Shit yeah you’re right” Octavia said reaching for her phone “Well he’s only mildly panicking, seven missed calls and fourteen texts.” Octavia sighed and stood. “I better get back and show him I’m not dead.’

Clarke watched him go and realised that spending the time with Lexa wasn’t really going to be an option today.

“Sorry Lexa, I’ve got to get back to Arkadia and see how much my mother has noticed me missing. See you tomorrow” Clarke said sadly, trying to give Lexa a small smile as she left to follow her friends.

…

“Soooo” Anya said, dragging the word out while she swung on her chair and Lexa knew an interrogation was coming. “Clarke seemed sad to be going home today” Anya said grinning.

“Yeah she did,” Lexa answered knowing that Anya was digging for gossip.

“You are looking a bit brighter today too. What did you two get up to when you were talking and playing your flute all night?” Anya asked.

“We talked, helped ease each other’s burdens and somehow neither of us had nightmares last night. You never know just how exhausted and strained you are until the weight lifts.” Lexa said, she was smiling thinking of all night with Clarke and waking up content and comfortable.

“Ok, you’re keeping something from me but since you’re smiling and well rested I’ll let it slide today.” Anya said nudging Lexa’s shoulder “It looks good on you.”

“Thanks Anya.” Lexa said relaxing into the couch so they could binge watch tv. It was nice to relax and even Anya was being comfortable and nice. It was an unsaid thing that this would be one of the few moments where they could relax and just enjoy life and to take advantage of it while they can.

…

“Mum I’m home,” Clarke yelled as she walked back into her house for the first time in ages wondering if her mother was even home to notice her arrival. The silence lasted for a few seconds and Clarke felt disappointed, her mother probably hadn’t even noticed. The sound of footsteps soon reached her ears and Clarke realised that she was suddenly nervous.

“Clarke? Oh my god you’re home, I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. The Power Rangers fight in Hakeldama had left a lot of people injured; Arkadia Hospital is a bit overworked” Abby said.

Clarke suddenly felt sick to her stomach and felt the colour drain from her face. It was obvious her mother noticed something was wrong because Abby quickly ran over to Clarke and pressed her hand to her forehead.

“Clarke are you allright? You don’t look good. What’s happened” Abby asked at a slightly frantic pace. Abby didn’t know that Clarke had been in Hakeldama and had caused those injuries and the deaths.

“I was in Hakeldama when that happened mum.” Clarke said, guilt and pain and self-hatred flowing through her face. Clarke was almost going to say that it was her fault, she had been the leader of that bungled battle but Abby’s next words stopped that idea dead.

“I don’t see why the Power Rangers had to fight in Hakeldama though, so many innocent civilians in the way.” Abby said looking at the newspaper on the nearby which had a report on the Rangers battle with Emerson the day before. “Yesterday there was a new one and they seemed to do no damage to Polis.”

“What are you saying mum? Those two were very different fights; Hakeldama there was a giant monster and Polis they just fought hand to hand. Say what you mean” Clarke said, this conversation was not going the way it was supposed to. She had just wanted to see her mother who had at least noticed she hadn’t been home in a while but now she was trying to defend the Power Rangers without being able to say she was one of them.

“I’m saying that they need to be aware of their actions, their battles are huge and destructive and so much collateral damage.” Abby said plainly.

“I am perfectly aware of how many people died because of me mum, the plan I came up with was a fucking disaster and three hundred and fifty two people died. I’m assuming this is the part where you tell me how many extra people died in hospital so I can carry the guilt of their deaths too.” Clarke yelled, totally done with people judging her actions especially when she was unable to defend herself. Abby took a step back in shock at Clarke’s outburst and then her face dropped in total shock.

“Your plan? Are you telling me it was your plan to use the reactor to ignite the gas pipes under Hakeldama?” Abby asked incredulously.

“My plan was to use to old reactor to explode and destroy Sidney’s monster. The pipeline explosions were a total accident. Finn and Wells died and it’s my fault. I have had nightmares ever since, I don’t need you to torture me too.” Clarke said as tears started to fall.

“Why would you do something so risky?” Abby asked, suddenly scared at the pain her daughter was going through, how much she was hurting and she hadn’t noticed.

“We were desperate ok? Sidney had beaten us the last two times and now she had her giant monster ready. It was the best I could come up with at the time. It cost us everything.” Clarke said slumping down in to a nearby chair and once again her own thoughts and guilt threatened to swallow her again.

“Oh Clarke, I’m so sorry. How long have you been a Power Ranger?” Abby asked realising that any accusations and anger was going to cause irreparable damage to their already strained relationship.

“Since just after dad died,” Clarke said realising that her mother had stopped blaming Clarke and was instead starting to realise just how inattentive she had been.

“Mum don’t blame yourself, dad had just died and you were burying yourself in work to cope and we have to keep our identities a secret, which I realise now that I’ve fucked up. It was easier to keep from being overwhelmed with the Rangers.” Clarke said reaching out to embrace her mother in a hug.

“I’ve been a terrible mother” Abby said accepting the hug.

“I’ver been a pretty shitty daughter lately too. We aren’t okay, not yet but this is a start. I need you to keep this secret. Please don’t even tell Jaha how Wells really died, I’m not ready to face that yet.” Clarke said as she held her mother for a bit longer.

“We can work on it though, how long are you home for?” Abby asked.

“Definitely tonight, we have a meeting tomorrow to try and find the source of the recent enemy.” Clarke said finally letting go and leaning back into the chair. “What did you want to eat tonight?”

“We could order Chinese if you want?” Abby said reaching across to grab the menu for the Chinese place that the Griffin family used to frequent but hadn’t had since Jake’s death.

“Sounds like a great place to start. Let’s do that tonight and just have a quiet night in.” Clarke said feeling like it was a good way to start trying to repair their relationship. It was a good feeling that the two of them were at least making an attempt.

The hours went by with Clarke and Abby just relaxing and taking the first steps to repairing their relationship; a movie some wine and Chinese food. They took it slowly and made some progress and headed to bed. Clarke hoping that tonight would be nightmare free but fairly certain that they would not leave her alone tonight. She was right.

_Clarke was running down a burning street in Hakeldama. The flames burning were torturing her they formed hundreds of faces. She didn’t know who they were but the fact that there were hundreds of faces amongst the flames told Clarke exactly who they were: the people who had been killed by Clarke’s stupid plan._

_Clarke turned the corner and saw Finn on his knees, bloodied and bruised and looking up at a blonde woman towering over him wielding a blade. The sword dripped with blood as the woman gave an evil and slightly familiar laugh. Clarke stopped sprinting as she realised why the laugh was so familiar; it was a twisted version of her own laugh. The woman turned and Clarke saw her own face except it was a nightmarish version of herself._

_Her own features were twisted in hatred and delight at the suffering she had inflicted on Finn and then when she saw Clarke come running up in her Power Ranger Armour she smiled evilly._

_“Oh look who has finally arrived Finny boy, the woman who kills you” Clarke’s evil double said laughing as somehow Clarke found herself staring at Finn from the point of view of her evil self. Unable to control her she swung her sword taking Finn’s head off and she watched herself in blue armour totally helpless to save him._

_The scene changed and suddenly Clarke was holding on to Wells as he dangled over a cliff. Wells was screaming in fear as he dangled below her and Clarke suddenly shifted her perspective again to her evil self, laughing as she stood nearby._

_“Clarke sweety why don’t you drop him? He’s not even that important.” Clarke felt herself say and watched as the Blue Ranger ahead of her dropped Wells without a second thought._

_The scene changed again and this time Clarke saw herself wading through the flames producing the scared faces, this time of everyone she cared about until she reached Lexa standing alone in Polis out the front of Niylah’s._

_“Are you going to kill me too Klark?” Lexa asked sadly looking at Clarke who held her sword aloft ready to strike._

_“I was always going to lead to your death Lexa, I’m just hurrying it along. A stupid idea I had” Clarke felt herself say as she slashed out._

Clarke screamed herself awake. Clarke was lying in a pool of sweat and could hear her mother struggling to wake up to see what was wrong.

“Clarke are you allright? Clarke please” Abby said practically begging to be let into the room. Clarke felt herself crying, it was just a nightmare but it had reinforced her doubts and fears that because blamed herself for the deaths of Wells and Finn she would end up leading to the deaths of the rest of her friends and fellow Rangers. Tears flowed down her face as her mother opened the door. Seeing Clarke so distraught made Abby feel terrible and guilty for almost forgetting her own daughter after Jake’s passing.

“Nightmare, everyone’s dead and it was my fault” Clarke said choking the words out between sobs. This nightmare had been worse, never had Lexa died in a nightmare and the night without a nightmare seemed to have made this one the most severe to date.

“What can I do Clarke?” Abby asked. Clarke just shook her head, she had no idea how her mother would be able to help her. The only relief she had found at all had been with Lexa and that wasn’t an option tonight. Thinking of Lexa Clarke reached for her phone and dialled the other girls number and was quickly greeted by Lexa’s own tired voice.

“Klark, did you have a nightmare too?” Lexa asked sounding as tired as Clarke felt.

“Yeah I did, worse than ever.” Clarke admitted, her mother watching her closely.

“Me too.” Lexa admitted. It seems that the one night of peace the girls had gotten had to be paid for with worse nightmares.

“Clarke sweetheart who’s on the other end of the phone?” Abby asked. Clarke had barely hesitated to dial the person she was talking to, almost as if she knew that they would be awake as well.

“It’s one of the other rangers mum, can’t say who. You shouldn’t even know that I’m a Ranger” Clarke said and then realised that Lexa had heard every word.

“I’m sorry Green, I didn’t mean to tell her it just came out, she was blaming the Rangers for all the deaths anyway, and I couldn’t let the others take that burden too.” Clarke said down the phone to Lexa knowing that her mother was listening.

“I understand Clarke, I won’t tell the others” Lexa said. How was this girl so understanding, Clarke broke on of the cardinal rules and then one of the rules this team had set up all at the same time and Lexa was just like yeah ok you messed up but it’s fine.

“Mum can you give us a bit of privacy?” Clarke asked.

“I’ll be right next door if you need me” Abby said, feeling that Clarke needed space and to be open and honest with the person on the other end of the line which couldn’t happen if Abby was in the room too.

“Thanks mum” Clarke said as Abby got up and left, closing the door behind her. “Lexa I didn’t mean to tell her, but it’s started to repair our elationship. I didn’t realise just how broken I really am until tonight.” Clarke said and she could hear Lexa breathing a bit easier, just their voices were calming each other down.

“So how bad was your nightmare?” Lexa asked, they hadn’t discussed the actual content of the nightmares and Lexa was wondering if she had overstepped the line.

“Worst I have ever had, the faces of people from Hakeldama who died were everywhere, watching as I killed the old Rangers and then moved on to killing, everybody else.” Clarke had almost told Lexa that she had been on the wrong end of her sword but decided to not.

“That’s terrible, I keep seeing the car crash except it’s not just Costia and I, you were in there too tonight. Last night was so much better.” Lexa admitted, trusting Clarke with the true content of her nightmares. Clarke could tell that tears were running down Lexa’s face as she spoke to her.

Looking at the clock it was close to two am. Clarke hardly slept after her old nightmares and she might not get any sleep tonight after this. “Can I come over?” Clarke asked.

“Yeah I need you too Clarke.” Lexa said. Clarke smiled at the admission and packed a few things into a bag before going in to her mother’s room to see Abby sitting up and waiting for her. “I need to go, not Power Rangers business just there’s a way to reduce my nightmares. I’ll be in touch more often than I have been mum.”

“So long as you are sure Clarke. It was nice to spend time with you tonight Clarke. I love you feel free to come home when you need to.” Abby said giving Clarke a hug and a small smile. It hurt that she was leaving so soon but there wasn’t much that Abby could do at the moment. Clarke needed to learn to live with it all.

“Thanks mum” I’ll see you soon. I promise.” Clarke said leaving to make the drive to Polis.

Clarke’s drive felt like it took all night when really it was only about half an hour down the freeway. She arrived at Niylah’s and walked in the front door, it was always open and through the dining room to where the six rangers each had a room reserved for them. Clarke was so focused on getting to cuddle up to Lexa and find peace again that she didn’t see Niylah watching her walk across the dining room with a smile on her face.

Clarke walked into Lexa’s room without hesitating and saw the beautiful brunette sitting up waiting for her. Clarke quickly slid under the warm covers next to Lexa, wrapped her arms around her. Both girls sighed with relief and breathed slightly easier and were asleep within minutes.  


	8. Dante's Inferno 4 Ignition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers get some help planning their next move and go looking for the answers they seek. The answers find them first though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we move into the later phases of the Dante's Inferno Arc. Here we reveal more information and start to set things up for a hopefully enjoyable ending to the arc. I love you guys who keep commenting and leaving love :) Hopefully you guys enjoy this. Oh and tell me what you think of how the Clexa relationship is developing. Please I hope I'm doing ok with it trying to blend plot and relationship development is newer to me.

Dante’s Inferno 4 Ignition

The peace of sharing a bed with Clarke had worn off by the time the rest of the Rangers had assembled. Waiting for Emori Lexa felt tense. Lincoln, Anya and Lexa all knew Emori on some level and now they were about to reveal that they had become Power Rangers to her. She was pacing around the room with the holographic table in it, acutely aware that Clarke hadn’t taken her eyes off her yet.

They hadn’t spoken more about the fact that they had this unique bond and with time it was only getting stronger. This morning curled up together in bed Lexa and Clarke had smiled and just been enjoying each other’s company and the relief that they were experiencing.

“Lexa please, it’s fine. Emori will understand and she won’t blame you for anything.” Anya said, frustrated at Lexa’s constant movement and what she felt was needless worry.

“How can you be sure, Emori met us each as troublemakers and street rats: Lincoln was a drunk who wanted to steal a fire engine, you almost burned down the chem lab because you “misheard” Nyko when he said don’t mix those two solutions and I’m the idiot who crashed someone else’s car and killed my girlfriend.” Lexa said, stressed and strained and fearful, she hadn’t realised until last night when Clarke had told her how her mother had reacted at first. The initial reaction from her mother had hurt Clarke and Lexa had felt for the blonde. Now that she was faced with revealing her identity to somebody important and adult in her life.

“Lexa she knows you as more than that. You were desperate that day, looking for a way to protect Costia. You can’t be held responsible for that forever Lexa.” Anya said kindly, knowing that that day was a permanent scar on Lexa’s mind in addition to the ones on her back.

“Lexa come here,” Clarke’s voice was soothing as she held out her hand from her seat on the floor against the wall. Lexa quickly walked over and Clarke took her hand. The feel of Clarke’s warm soft hand in her own was instantly calming. Lexa was suddenly able to breathe properly and focus on the matter at hand.

Niylah walked in with Emori and Raven. Niylah smiled seeing Clarke and Lexa connected by the hand, the two of them were drawing strength from each other and they were getting closer and closer if Clarke’s late night arrival was anything to go by.

“So Emori these are the current Power Rangers” Lincoln said shuffling his feet awkwardly. Lexa could see in his face that borrowing the fire truck and then revealing who he was made him slightly uncomfortable. “I’m the Red Ranger that borrowed your fire engine the other day. You saved our lives so thanks” Lincoln finished scratching at the back of his head awkwardly.

“Lincoln, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world” Emori said looking at the other rangers. “Anya and Lexa too, I knew you two would turn out all right. The rest I don’t know.”

“I’m Octavia, the Black Ranger, Monty over there is the yellow and one of our fearless leaders, blondie over there is Clarke” Octavia said as she pointed out the rangers that Emori hadn’t met before.

“Are you all from Arkadia?” Emori asked.

“Yeah and Octavia, Raven and I are the only surviving members of the team from Hakeldama.” Clarke said wanting to get the hard part out of the way early. If they were trusting Emori with who they were they needed to trust her with everything they had done. “It was my plan that caused the Hakeldama battle to go so badly” Clarke admitted.

“You mean how the reactor explosion ignited an old forgotten pipe that used to pump oil to Mount Weather? That was an accident and also exposed an old secret from Wallace’s attempts at controlling the region.” Emori said.

“Wallace? Wasn’t he the guy who held Polis to ransom over a lost election or something? It was ages ago right?’ Monty asked trying to remember this random fact.

“Yeah like thirty years ago, I’m not too sure what set him off but at the end of it Mount Weather Military Academy had burned to the ground and half of Polis was on fire. It’s how I got my scar and why I joined the Polis Fire Department, they saved me. So tracking fires? Let’s get started.” Emori said and everyone took a seat around the holographic display table with Emori pulling out a list of all the recent fires in Polis.

“So let’s just add them and the dates they were and see if we can spot any sort of pattern.” Lexa said and the Rangers along with Raven, Niylah and Emori set about working through months of data hoping to see something.

…

Three hours later and most of the Rangers were taking a break from the table and their work. Clarke was lying down on the couch sketching and leaning against Lexa with her feet dangling over the arm as Lexa was reading. The two had barely separated all day, constantly touching and the others had noticed but didn’t care. They cared too much about Lexa and Clarke and finally seeing them calmer, happier and less broken than they had in a long time to ruin it by mocking them.

Clarke’s sketch was starting to take shape; it was the view back towards Polis and Arkadia from the Rocks of Dawn; the entrance to the Command Centre. In one corner was Mount Weather and sketching out some of the details Clarke was struck by a sudden realisation.

“Mount Weather” Clarke yelled causing everybody to jump in surprise and Lexa to slip out from beneath her casuing Clarke to squawk as she fell backwards into Lexa’s recently vacated spot.

“What about it?” Emori asked.

“You said it yourself, the pipe that exploded had been transporting flammable liquid to Mount Weather, Wallace had been in charge of Mount Weather Academy before it burned down and Polis was burning. So much stuff is related to fire. It just fits, or at least it feels like it does.” Clarke said suddenly slowing her voices frantic pace down when it felt like the others weren’t following her train of thought.

“It’s a lot of assumptions based off flimsy connections” Emori said. It looked shit she was going to shoot down Clarke’s theory before Monty spoke up.

“I don’t think it’s as flimsy as it first appears.” Monty started “An old unused pipe for thirty years wouldn’t have enough flammable liquid to cause the explosion that it did.  If Wallace used a lot of fire based weapons in his first takeover attempt it stands to reason he would try it again. Emerson said he had a master that wanted to take over Polis, or was after revenge. I think if we use a similar filter but just focus on average temperatures across the whole Polaris district we could find something interesting.” Monty said as he took over the controls, inputting new commands until the map of Polis zoomed right out to show the whole Polaris District.

With a few extra presses Monty made certain areas of the map glow, some were getting brighter and brighter red. Eventually Mount Weather stood out as a very bright red, brighter than any other colour in the region.

“Well look at that Mount Weather is a massive heat storage. I don’t see why though, look at it closely. See how all the heat is contained within it. It sort of looks like a volcano.” Monty said thinking hard.

“If Mount Weather is once again the hideout for Wallace how are we going to prove it? We can’t just get the Zords and attack the whole mountain.” Lexa said.

“You could, kind of like kicking the hornet’s nest” Raven said excited at any chance for pyrotechnics.

“Raven no” Clarke said. “Are the Zords even ready for battle?”

“Yeah I’ve fixed them up, good as or even better than new. You’ll appreciate all my hard work next time they are needed.” Raven said.

“Humble brag” Octavia scoffed causing the Rangers to laugh.

“Just because I can do wonders with machines.” Raven said smirking back at Octavia, it was an old argument and one that seemed would never die.

“Ladies. Focus?” Lexa said drawing everyone’s attention back to the matter at hand; finding out if Wallace was behind the burning men and if he was hiding out in Mount Weather.

“Yes right focused. We have two main goals here; find out if it is Wallace behind these flaming warriors and if Mount Weather is being used as a base. How are we going to approach this?” Octavaia asked.

“In teams, without armour, we need to research things first. I think we check out Mount Weather, a few of us hike up there, check out where the old facility used to be. We have a few people here who could look up Wallace, see if you can find something, anything that gives us more information. Emori you could use your connections at the Fire Departments to prepare for the inevitable firestorm that’s going to come.” Lexa said working out the basic details of the plan.

“Who’s up for a hike team?” Clarke asked brightly.

…

Lexa poked her tongue out at Anya who was making kissing faces at her while Clarke was looking the other direction. The Rangers had decided that they would split off into smaller groups and look around Mount Weather in casual clothes just as normal young adults exploring the mountain.

Lexa and Clarke hadn’t even been the ones to volunteer to go together, it eemed like all the other rangers just paired off and left them together. It was obvious to all the others that Clarke and Lexa needed each other in more ways than could be explained. The two were far stronger together than they were separately.

Clarke gave Lexa a smile as she joined her and linked their hands together. It just felt right. The two girls started exploring the old burnt out ruins of Mount Weather Academy.

“What was it an Academy of?” Lexa asked as they walked past a building that had piles of melted metal on the floor arranged in a pattern like desks.

“I think Monty and Emori said it was a kind of military school. Some stories go that Wallace was using it to create his own private army; that was what started the whole crisis last time I think” Clarke said rather uncertainly. She had only been half listening when Monty and Emori were going over the history of the place, Lexa had shifted in her arms and suddenly Clarke had felt her heart beat faster and been too focused on the beautiful girl in her arms.

“You zoned out too didn’t you?” Lexa asked with that smile she seemed to save just for Clarke.

“Hey you’re distracting” Clarke tried to defend herself.

“So are you Clarke” Lexa said. Clarke smiled as she looked at Lexa’s green eyes as they sparkled with the care they had for each other and the fun they were having.

The two girls were still engrossed in each other when they came across a large door of solid steel hidden in a ruined building that backed up against a cliff face. Clarke walked up to the door and pressed her hands against it. Pushing it did nothing. It was as Clarke backed away from the door she heard a faint whirring sound and looking around she saw a camera watching her movements.

“I think we found something Lexa, let’s see what the others have found.” Clarke said as the girls walked out of the building. The moving camera had told Clarke that whatever was behind that door was still active. She pulled out her phone to dial Octavia while Lexa dialled Anya allowing them to contact the other two groups.

“Hey guys we found something, it feels like we are in the right place.” Clarke said once the phone had been picked up.

“Yeah there’s definitely something here” Octavia said “hang on, what was that Lincoln? Can I hear something? Oh shit! Morph let’s go” Octavia’s voice changed from normal to surprised and straight back into Ranger mode and the call went dead.

“ANYA!” Lexa was shouting down her phone. It seemed like a similar thing was happening to the other group as well. Clarke looked at Lexa who nodded back her as they heard a crackling of flames behind them. With a flash the women had morphed into their armour and met their attacker head on.

Their attacker was a man made of what looked like solid lava with cracks of flame between the slabs of black stone. The lava man screamed and unleashed a torrent of flame at the two girls. They dived aside and Clarke said over the helmet comms to everyone.

“We are definitely in the right place. Let’s go Rangers.”

…

Octavia felt the wind get knocked out of her by a fist like a boulder as she went flying into one of the ruined buildings. From the ground Octavia watched as Lincoln leapt in, sword drawn and lopped off a hand of the golem creature. The golem merely looked at the stump in slight confusion and then punched Lincoln hard with its remaining fist.

Lincoln’s grunt of pain came through her headset as Octavia hauled herself to her feet and created her Axe. She was about to charge the creature but stopped in shock as the golem leant down, grabbed its hand and reattached it to the stump then came charging at Octavia and Lincoln again roaring and streaming flames.

Octavia used her axe to block one of the golem’s fists and Lincoln used his sword. The impact was still severe on each of them sending them stumbling back and the Golem continued charging sending them flying backwards again near the area that Clarke and Lexa were fighting a golem of their own.

…

Anya was pissed. She was being held from behind by a lava golem and it was squeezing her tighter and tighter. Monty was trying to get close enough to the golem to release Anya but the monster was using its free arm and legs to keep him away. Anya’s bow was dangling uselessly from her wrist as she tugged at the arm holding her. Anya screamed in frustration, fear and uselessness as Monty was flung away from the monster by the force of its punch and Anya was trapped in its grip.

Anya had an explosive arrow at the ready but shooting it in the only direction she could; straight down wouldn’t achieve anything. The arrow would explode on contact which gave Anya sudden inspiration. With a deft flick of her wrist Anya managed to turn the arrow around and slung it up straight into the arm holding her. The arrow exploded shattering the arm and rattling Anya’s jaw. The monster roared spewing flames as Anya fell to the ground landing unsteadily which gave the monster a chance to land a vicious kick to Anya’s ribs and toss her in the direction Monty had been thrown.

…

Clarke and Lexa had met their golem head on and were holding their own but were soon joined by the other rangers as they got thrown into the area. They were soon joined by the two monsters that had attacked the other rangers and then the great door that Clarke and Lexa had found opened and more golems poured out.

Completely surrounded the Rangers were in serious trouble, even more so when a handsome man in a vivid red suit similar to the one Carl Emerson had been wearing.

“So the mighty Power Rangers have come to Mount Weather, what have you been looking for I wonder. Are you looking for more Soldiers of Flame like Emerson? He was a prototype, Dr Tsing has greatly improved the science behind them.” The man said and he quickly turned into pure fire and then back again as if to prove a point. “A lucky side effect was the creation of these lava golems to serve as additional ground troops. We are totally unstoppable now and you will all have front row seats to our victory. Take them inside” The man said and the lava golems quickly grabbed the Rangers and dragged them down into the Mount Weather facility built deep into the mountain.


	9. Dante's Inferno 5 Volcano

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rangers deal with the captivity and games of those in power inside Mount Weather. Time is running out as the Wallace family is nearing their final goal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we go. Part 1 of the final battle of the Mount Weather Arc, this was originally going to be it but the way it turned out I needed to extend it. I hope you enjoy it guys.

Dante’s Inferno 5 Volcano

“Any changes?” Cage Wallace asked as he walked in to the security centre of Mount Weather, looking at the monitors. The six of his focus each held an individual Ranger still in full armour. Blue, Green, Yellow and Red were all sitting calmly against the rear wall. Pink was pacing, clenching and unclenching her fists and Black was not handling the captivity well at all, smashing their fists into the walls and door leaving large dents and craters but achieving no notable success at their increasingly desperate attempts at escape.

“Black and Pink are still the most active with Black looking as though they suffer from claustrophobia with the way they are moving. The other four are stoic and patient. I have been monitoring them for any signals and communications but aside from a few small transmissions as we brought them in there has been nothing. What do you think of them?” Lorelei Tsing asked without taking her eyes off the screen.

“We have the Power Rangers captured and still my father hesitates with the final stages of the plan. Why do we not use this chance?” Cage asked his frustration evident in his voice.

“Because even if we have all six Power Rangers Arkadia and Polis are not defenceless. They have soldiers, weapons capable of defending against whatever attack we decide to launch. You know it as well as I do Cage the reason I was defeated was because I got impatient. I attacked before I was ready and lost. I will not move before the volcano is ready. That is only brief days away.” Dante Wallace said walking in to the monitoring room.

“Father I didn’t mean to…” Cage started to say but was cut off by his father.

“Yes you did Cage, I don’t blame you for your eagerness or frustrations. You are my son after all. I do have an important question though” Dante said gesturing to the screens “what are we going to do about the Power Rangers?”

“We find out their identities, we use that knowledge to find their weaknesses and destroy them utterly.” Cage said with venom.

“What if we go the other way? What if we turn them into even greater weapons?” Tsing asked.

“Both plans have merit. Perhaps a little game while we wait for the volcano to be ready. Each of you take three Rangers and try and do what you just proposed. The most successful of you will get a prize.” Dante said bidding his farewell.

“I will take Green, Red and Pink” Cage said.

“Any particular reason for those three?” Tsing asked.

“We each take one of the moving ones and one of the two that fought Emerson. That seems to be the fairest and most even distribution.” Cage said smirking “I wouldn’t want to defeat you unless it was fair.”

“We shall see, Cage. We shall see” Tsing said as she left the observation room to head down to the cells that the Rangers were being kept in.

…

The lava golems held a tight grip on each of the Rangers as Clarke’s mind raced. The man who had greeted and captured them had been young, closer in age to Niylah than the man they were looking for. He had Emerson’s powers and had claimed to be a stronger version of him.

“Guys we need to have limited radio contact with each other. Set up a timer in your helmets for eight hours and we will do a quick debriefing then. Until then gather as much Intel as we can. Octavia if they put you in a cell please try and hold strong.” Clarke said knowing that Octavia’s claustrophobia would make any prolonged imprisonment truly challenging for her. If the people who had captured them had the ability to create people made of fire Clarke felt certain that they would be able to block their communications eventually.

The other Rangers all gave their agreement with Octavia giving a quiet promise to try and keep calm but her history in small spaces would make that very difficult. They were marched through pristine white hallways deeper in to the mountain with scientists and soldiers everywhere.

They were walked for close to twenty minutes constantly getting deeper until they finally reached a hallway of solid doors and dull grey stone. The air down here was much warmer. The rangers were each thrown into an individual cell with just a bed and toilet. Clarke took a seat on the bed and waited.

The first hour passed with little incident, Clarke just sat and went over everything she had seen from the moment the lava golems had appeared.

The second hour Clarke started to hear the banging and thudding of a Ranger attacking the walls of their cell. Clarke knew it was Octavia and was surprised that it had taken her so long to lose her cool.

The third hour saw the guards deliver a few pieces of bread and a simple cup of water. Eating it would require revealing her face so Clarke was willing to wait longer before eating. She hoped the others were coping with their solitude.

It was deep into the seventh hour with about twenty minutes before the Rangers were due to check in with each other that something finally changed. The door opened and instead of a guard in uniform came a small child with a plate of bread and water along with a cupcake and a note.

The little girl seemed scared of Clarke and she placed the food down and bolted from the room with the door slamming behind her. Clarke made her first movement in hours as she got up to investigate the strange new occurrence. She looked up and saw the camera was no longer able to see her so she dropped her mask to drink the tepid water and slightly stake bread. She picked up the note and was surprised to see it was not written in childish script but a well refined cursive handwriting.

_Ranger,  
I know that this would be strange finding an ally in the den of your enemy and hopefully if my daughter has done her job you will actually be reading it. Some of us do not agree with the way things are being done in Mount Weather and believe you and your team could help us. We want to overthrow the Wallace family; Dante and Cage. _

_I will do what I can to help you from out here. Destroy this note. Please help us this is the only chance we are going to get._

_Sincerely, a friend._

The note and situation left Clarke feeling more confused than anything. Allies in a den of enemies. Clarke was keener than ever to discuss it with the rest of her team. The next few minutes couldn’t go fast enough for Clarke.

…

Lexa was bored, hours had passed and nothing had happened. She had already gone through the features of her helmet: a distance radar showing her that all the Rangers were held individually but relatively close to each other, her timer and she re watched the walk down to their cells from the recording software. Ignoring the communication system she only had the various visor modes to scroll through. Lexa found an x-ray visor and switched it on.

The visor allowed Lexa to see into the hallway, each of their doors was guarded by a human soldier and a mass of rocks which Lexa assumed would be a lava golem. The people that had captured them didn’t seem to be taking any chances. Lexa frowned as she noticed a group six people come down the hallway, three of them looked like children.

Lexa swapped back to her normal visor as the door to her cell opened revealing a young man with burn scars on his hands delivering a tray of food. Lexa said nothing as she watched him place the tray of food on the floor in the centre of the room. Lexa waited until the guy had left and the door was locked before she moved to look at the tray she had been delivered.

The food included slices of bread, some rice and a type of meat in a weird orange sauce. Glancing at the timer Lexa realised she could wait the next two hours to discuss the food she has received, they needed more information.

The door opened again and the man that had captured them walked in with his fine red suit flickering with small flames. He looked over and saw the untouched food and scoffed.

“Starving yourself? You won’t make any progress like that. Get up you’re coming with me.” The man said and his face grew harsh and ugly and flickering with flames as Lexa didn’t even acknowledge him. He snarled and clicked his fingers and two lava golems ran into the room grabbing her by the arms and dragging her away.

“Who are you?” Lexa asked tone vicious even through the voice filters in her helmet. This man had an air of authority around him, not just by rank but a healthy dose of fear as well Lexa saw in the scientists that they passed.

“I am Cage Wallace, the man who is going to destroy the Power Rangers, then Polaris District and then my father too. Once that is done there will be no power on this earth that can stop me.” Cage said and Lexa saw the evil lust for power and control their and instantly realised exactly why everyone around here was scared of him: he was evil and crazy and powerful.

“Green Ranger, ready, able and more than definitely willing to kick your arse and bring this mountain down on your head.” Lexa said with as much confidence and bravado she could muster when all her heart was screaming at her to do was run.

“Oh Green you and I are going to be on a first name basis very soon don’t worry.” Cage smiled and turned his hand to fire and grabbed Lexa on the bicep. The intense heat sizzled through Lexa’s armour but she closed the external microphone link and screamed her pain into her soundproof helmet.  They kept walking after Cage didn’t get a reaction from Lexa. The lava golems tossed Lexa into a large room with scorch marks on every surface. Lexa was about to ask why Cage had brought her to this room when she was met with a flaming fist across her jaw and the answer became very apparent; he was going to beat the crap out of her or at least try.

Lexa threw a punch that Cage ducked with ease and landed a sharp jab to her stomach making her bend over. Lexa was then slammed in to the ground by Cage dropping his fists on to her back. Rolling to the side Lexa tried to get some distance but Cage was able to keep on top of her landing vicious kicks and punches as Lexa struggled and failed to reach her feet.

“Is this all that you can muster Ranger? Tell me who you are and I’ll stop.” Cage said still landing heavy blows on Lexa.

“Never” Lexa said through gritted teeth.

“You’ll change your tune soon enough Green.” Cage said giving her a final kick to the stomach before gesturing to the lava golems to drag Lexa’s limp and aching body back to her cell.

Lexa focused on staying conscious while the timer ticked down to their scheduled check in. Her entire torso was screaming at her each time she inhaled, the pesky camera meant that Lexa couldn’t remove her armour and check the actual damage. Emerson had been strong and she had had Clarke fighting at her side. Cage was exceptionally more powerful and vicious and Lexa hadn’t stood a chance.

The timer ticked over to eight hours and Clarke’s voice came over the comms loud and clear and worried.

“Rangers are you ok? Learn anything?” Clarke asked and even though Clarke was nervous and worried the sound of her voice eased Lexa’s pain slightly.

“Bread and water and a note from a friend in a friend of enemies.” Monty said.

“Yeah I got the same thing but it came with a cupcake” Clarke said.

“The doors and walls can sure take a beating, bread and water here too.” Octavia said.

“You three got bread and water? I got rice, bread water and something in an orange sauce.” Lincoln said “tasted awful.”

“Don’t know about the taste, but I got the same thing” Anya said.

“Same food as Lincoln and Anya and Cage Wallace came and personally beat the shit out of me. He’s way tougher than Emerson was.” Lexa said her voice reflecting the injuries with a slight wheeze and difficulty speaking with heavier breathing.

“Fuck” someone said and then all the voices aside from Clarke’s disappeared.

“Lexa, talk to me please. Are you ok?” Clarke had been worried before but hearing that Lexa had been basically attacked and beaten had torn something inside Clarke.

“Hurts. Hurts so much” Lexa said and she felt wetness in the form of tears start to gather at the corners of her eyes. It was Clarke’s deep concern that had shaken them loose.

“Clarke sorry to intrude on your private time with Lexa but Cage just came and is taking me somewhere” Anya’s voice came over the comms, short and clipped and Clarke and Lexa realised that things were starting to advance quickly.

“Anya this is going to hurt, take as long as you can but don’t get hurt too badly. Please” Lexa said desperate for a way to keep things from spiralling too far out of control.

“We could see if they are actually allies or if it’s just another trap” Monty said.

“It’s a trap, only three of us got it and it was the exact same note. Meanwhile the other three got much better food. It almost feels as though we are the subjects of a little game between people.” Clarke said.

“It makes sense but if one person is Cage Wallace and he’s stronger than Emerson who would be the other person playing with us?” Octavia said weighing up the limited evidence they had.

“We need some form of plan. Monty try and get in contact with Becca and through her Niylah and Raven, we could really use their help. Anyone got any other steps? Escape or bring this down?” Clarke asked.

“I honestly don’t think we are going to get a better chance at bringing this place down if we are already this deep inside” Octavia said and then they all felt a rumbling in the earth.

“That can’t be a good thing” Lincoln said nerves breaking through his usual happy demeanour.

“I think that whatever is happening in this mountain is reaching its end game, we need to end this while we have this chance.” Clarke said. The problem was that only two or three Rangers could actually bust out of their cells but then they would run straight into the dozen or so guards in the hallway. That was before reinforcements arrived.

“Lexa, I know what you mean that hurts like a fucking bitch” Anya’s voice strained with pain came crackling back through their comms. “We’re coming back now” it had barely been ten minutes since Anya had been taken away. Cage was efficient, lethal and fucking terrifying.

“Did he want you to reveal yourself?” Lexa asked.

“Yeah that seems to be all he was after” Anya said.

“He wants our identities? That puts a bunch of others at risk, Niylah, Raven, Emori, my mum” Clarke said. There was a collective gasp from four Rangers while Lexa just stayed silent. “Oh yeah mum found out, we ended up having a massive argument first about the Power Rangers and then my role in Hakeldama. It wasn’t my plan to reveal it, it just happened. Thinking about it all, I think we each need at least one person outside of the Rangers to help us carry the burden.” Clarke said. In Clarke’s mind they all needed people to support them. The rules had been written for a different time.

“Looks like it’s my turn now” Lincoln said and he was taken away by Cage and his escort of lava golems. They were all wondering was Cage going to work his way through all of the Rangers one by one or was there something else in store for the other three?

…

Cage had been surprised to find that two of the Rangers he had chosen so far had not touched their food. They weren’t stupid and so he was quietly fuming and he felt flames visibly flickering on his suit. He walked in to the last cell containing a Ranger he had selected for his part of his father’s challenge. He glanced at the tray of food and noticed that it had been eaten, he smirked that something had finally gone his way.

“So Red who are you under that armour?” Cage asked sneering down at the teenager playing hero sitting in a cell. It was true they could use their images captured when they had been exploring the outside of Mount Weather but that was not nearly as fun as beating the living shit out of the Power Rangers.

The Power Rangers seemed to have internal communications so they could talk without being heard. They could talk if they wanted to and Cage wanted them to talk. He had laced their food with inhibition blockers. The drug was a useful interrogation tool; it wasn’t a truth serum, it didn’t force them to tell the truth it just helped to make them open up. Once they started talking it was much easier to keep them talking.

Once the Red Ranger was in the fire proof room Cage asked them once again “What is your name?” but was met with silence once again. He threw a brutal explosive punch and watched as the Ranger went flying. He laughed hard and continued his barrage of vicious punches and kicks with flaming limbs.

“WHAT IS YOUR NAME?” he roared when he started to hear the grunts and gasps of pain from the Ranger he was beating up.

“Lincoln” came the pained gasp from his current victim. Cage smiled at his first small success.

“Thank you Lincoln, you may go” Cage said as he opened the door and gestured to the golems to drag Lincoln’s aching body back to his cell. Cage’s footsteps took him to his office to start to look through the records of Polaris District for any Lincoln’s that matched up with the images taken from the external cameras. One name and he was so close to exposing the identities of the Power Rangers and then promptly destroying them. Such an achievement would surely give him the support he needed to overthrow his father.

…

Lincoln slumped back to the bed and groaned as his body screamed at the abuse Cage had delivered. He was also pissed at the two moments of weakness he had shown since being thrown into this cell. He now felt that the food had been drugged with something that made him more likely to let his secrets slip.  Lincoln swore to himself at being so stupid, he had to tell the others.

“Hey, everyone” Lincoln said, voice strangely quiet and distant. He felt like shit for what he was about to reveal to his friends, people he trusted with his life. “I fucked up and told Cage my name was Lincoln.” Instead of the outrage he expected he was met with concern and understanding.

“It was something in the food and the beating wasn’t it?” Anya asked. It made sense and somehow Lexa and Anya had known it without anything and here he was, big dumb footballer Lincoln eating any food he saw and giving it all away.

“Linc don’t be too hard on yourself, please they already had our faces from before, and there were cameras all over the ruined facility outside.” Lexa said.

“So why did we keep our armour on?” Lincoln asked.

“Protection and to be able to keep in touch with each other. It also would look weird if as soon as we got captured we dropped our armour.” Octavia said.

“Have you guys been in a situation like this before?” Lexa asked.

“We have been captured but we weren’t this deep in shit.” Clarke said sounding like she was about to be swallowed up by her own darkness again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Lincoln you gave us an answer to the biggest question we have been asking ourselves.” Clarke said.

“Which is?” Lincoln asked.

“Do we take it down while we are here or just escape?” Lexa said, smiling at least a little at the answer.

“Which is?”

“We burn this place to hell.” Clarke said. The Rangers set about planning their escape and subsequent fight for freedom.

…

Lorelei Tsing sat and listened as Cage bragged that he had found the identities of all of the Power Rangers within hours of capturing them. He was strutting around like a peacock as he told his father exactly who they were and he was even starting to list off people that could be targeted to make the Rangers more pliable.

“Niylah is a big one, this harlot takes in any and all orphans from Polis which includes Lexa, Lincoln and Anya. They are the red, green and pink ones. We get three of them if we grab Niylah and use her against them. I’ve already sent a squad of troops out to bring her in.” Cage said showing images of the Rangers without their armour and the possible targets to bring in to manipulate or destroy them.

“Well done Cage. I’m hoping your men don’t screw this up like last time I wanted them to do a simple task.” Dante’s words were cold and harsh despite the fire burning in his eyes. “Dr Tsing, have you made any progress?”

“I was just about to make the next move in convincing them that there is a rebellion inside this mountain.” Tsing said.

“What will you do if they believe it is a trap?” Dante asked.

“If they think it’s a trap then we just say I failed, give them an opportunity to escape that’s far too good to pass up and then we kill them as they attempt to escape. If we can’t use them we destroy them.” Tsing said watching the Wallace family’s reaction closely.

“When the volcano is ready we will have more than enough power to destroy the Polaris Region and then the rest of the world will be forced to accept our power.” Cage said, Lorelei watched the way Cage spoke. He was clearly very careful to not reveal his obvious desire to overthrow his father and take over. Dr Tsing would have to be very careful with Cage, maybe she really would need a revolution inside this mountain.

Dante was an incredibly dangerous man, but since he had been transformed into a man of fire by her own work. He had given Tsing a free reign to do whatever she wanted in her research but now she was starting to realised that she might have gone too far in given such unstable men such immense power.

“How long until the volcano is ready?” Tsing asked.

“Hours at most” Dante said. Everything was getting closer and closer to exploding. Tonight Mount Weather would explode and everything would change.

…

The hours since Lincoln had been brought back to his cell were being used for intense planning and discussion. Monty had managed to contact Becca and through her Raven and Niylah. The plan was for the people still on the outside to get the zords close to Mount Weather. Once the zords were in position the Rangers would bust out of their cells and then the battle would begin.

Clarke was scared but she would be dammed if she let her fears be known just moments before a battle. This place was more than just a science lab or soldiers barracks; it was a stronghold for Wallace and all of his followers; including kids. The destruction of an entire base and it was not going to be easy for Clarke. She had only just managed to be functional again, the pain of Hakeldama was still there but Clarke was focused on surviving.

“Rangers the zords are in position, it’s time to go” Raven’s voice came through faint and crackling. Clarke’s head snapped up and was ready to go.

“Let’s bring down the mountain” Clarke said and the Rangers immediately went to work. Octavia used her axe’s handle which had a rarely used built in blaster to shoot the door open, Anya used an explosive arrow to weaken the hinges and then kick her door open while Lexa used a unique melody on the dragon flute to gather green energy and release it into the door blowing it wide open.

As the three women burst into the hallway the guards and golems were momentarily stunned which allowed Anya to hand off three explosive arrows to Lexa; one for each door that was still shut. Anya started shooting off explosive arrows in pairs down the hallway in one direction while Octavia just started blasting away down her end of the corridor. Lexa ran between them slamming the arrows into the three remaining doors weakening them so they could be kicked wide open.  As the third door was kicked open from the inside by Clarke Lexa ran to embrace her. The two girls shared a brief comforting hug and then turned their attention to the battle that they had just started.

“Ready or not Wallace, this ends now” Lexa said as the Rangers threw themselves into the fight.


	10. Dante's Inferno 6: Eruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle inside Mount Weather facility, the rangers split up and deal with incredible powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So second last chapter of the Dante's Inferno Arc. I hope you guys are enjoying it and can keep track of the points of view jumps throughout this chapter. If it gets too messy let me know and I'll have a look at a way to fix it. A note of the delay I've been working on several fics and if you're a fan of either of the others you would have seen the recent updates.

Dante’s Inferno 6 Eruption

The alarms blared as the Rangers sprinted down the hallway. They had burst from their cells and straight into a full on battle. The reinforcements had come from one direction so the Rangers ran the other. The first stage of their daring plan involved reaching a room with a computer. As they ran Anya and Octavia shot out every camera that they came across.

They found a lab with a lone computer terminal. The lab was small with a single door. “Monty get on that computer; we need a map and to impact some of their systems. Octavia you stay here, keep him covered.” Clarke said.

The leadership of the Rangers was a combination of Clarke and Lexa, no arguments or conflicting orders; they seemed to flow together perfectly. Clarke’s experience gave her the ability to make solid calls in the middle of combat but Lexa’s inexperience gave her some useful insight and refreshing ideas especially in the larger plans. Clarke also felt more confident and less stressed with Lexa helping with the overall plans. She was still haunted that Hakeldama was her plan and her fault.

“Take care you two” Clarke said as she led the other three Rangers down the corridor, keep moving while Monty used his tech skills to get into the computer and give them a map as a starting point.

The group of four came across a staircase to the floor above and decided to split up, the more chaos they could cause away from Monty and Octavia the easier time they would have.

“Lexa, Anya take the stairs, we’ll keep heading around this floor” Clarke said running along the corridor and yelling to Monty for a progress update as two lava golems flanked by four soldiers came around the corner. “Lincoln get down” was all she had time to yell as the soldiers opened fire with their automatic weapons.

The bullets clattered and rattled against their armour, not penetrating but still hurting. Clarke focused on summoning a shield and her sword. The shield that formed resembled the head of her triceratops zord with a curved top and three protruding horns. The irregular shape allowed the bullets to ricochet off instead of just being stopped on impact with the shield.

Leading the way with the shield Clarke charged at the soldiers, bullets ricocheting into the nearby walls causing sparks. One of the bullets flew into a pipe on the wall, piercing it and sending forth a column of white steam streaming out of the pipe. The steam gave Clarke a moment of cover which allowed her to leap past the lava golems and drive her sword into the chest of the first soldier.

The soldiers all gasped in surprise at seeing the ease and willingness a Ranger was to kill. The stories of old power Rangers had glossed over the darker parts of their jobs, killing was a part of their mission sometimes. Clarke was tortured by Hakeldama because of the massive amount of innocent casualties. Right now ghosts of Hakeldama were far from Clarke’s mind, the sheer intensity of combat and the fight for survival drove all unnecessary thought from her mind.

As Clarke cut a bloody path through the soldiers, Lincoln no longer being pelted by bullets was able to leap up and throw himself at a lava golem. His initial attack sent the golem into the burst pipe causing the steam to coat the golem’s body. There was something in the steam that quickly turned the monster into hardened, brittle stone. The sword strike that followed shattered the monster and it didn’t even try to reform. It seemed the fire within them was able to reform them.

“Monty what’s in these pipes?” Lincoln asked as he grabbed the golem and slammed it into the last trickles of steam coming from the pipe. The small amount of steam didn’t turn it entirely into brittle stone. The golem’s legs turned brittle and Lincoln smashed them leaving just a torso that was still swinging its arms at Lincoln.

“It looks like it’s a fire control system. They can’t use water because they seem to be trying to turn this place into an active volcano. Oh fuck the volcano is going to be ready within hours. You guys all have to hurry up.” Monty said talking fast with a high pitched voice of panic.

“Monty can you turn it on everywhere?” Clarke asked, raising her shield as another group of soldiers came around the corner and opened fire.

“What would that do?” Monty asked as he finally got the maps of the whole facility and uploaded them to the helmet displays of all the Rangers.

“It turns the lava golems brittle and makes them stay broken.” Lincoln said as he cut the arms off the torso and kicked them away leaving a harmless roaring torso.

“Sure thing give me a few seconds” Monty said tapping away at the keyboard quickly.

“You guys better hurry up and cause some more chaos out there, we are getting way too popular for our own good here” Octavia said panting over the comms.

…

Cage looked at the security monitors he could see and growled in frustration as the security officer was yelling orders down his microphone to the soldiers as they raced through the corridors trying to intercept the Rangers.  The man’s orders were useless and were coming in far too slowly for Cage’s liking. As Cage opened his mouth to berate the useless man he saw something that made his face drop. Clarke and Lincoln had figured out a way to kill the golems properly; if they were hit with something that extinguished their internal flames they became brittle and unable to reform.

If they had discovered the way to bring the golems down all they needed to do was trip the fire system and every golem in the mountain would be able to be killed. Cage growled as he dragged the useless man aside and yelled down the microphone.

“Get every single lava golem outside right now. Fuck it send them to Polis, or Arkadia, time to use them for their purpose just get them outside now.” Cage’s roars got instant responses from the men and golems were started to be herded towards the exits to send them at the cities. “Find where they are accessing the terminal on the prison level and get them out of the system.”

“Cage the volcano will be ready in two hours. You’re sending the golems out to attack the cities already? Good choice. Once the volcano empowers me I will join them to ensure our victory. Keep the Rangers here at all costs.” Dante said as he watched as Cage struggled to get the situation under control.

“Of course father” Cage sneered then resumed his orders “Sanders get two squads and take them down to the Prison Level through stairwell C they are in one of the small labs on the computer.” Cage watched as Sanders grabbed a bunch of soldiers and headed towards the designated stairwell. As the soldiers emerged from the stairwell they were met with a massive cloud of steam as the fire extinguishers on the Prison Level went off, wiping out the few dozen golems too slow to move from that level.

“Somebody get me Dr Tsing. Now!” Cage screamed as his frustration boiled over, his eyes ignited and blazing with pure hatred flame.

…

“Monty, Octavia you’ve done all you can from there you need to move I count thirty soldiers coming straight for you.” Lexa said as she ducked under a flaming punch from a burning soldier. Lashing out Lexa swept his legs out with a sweep of her own leg and plunged the Dragon Dagger into the area his heart was. Something in her dagger kept him solid enough for the blade to pierce her enemy’s heart.

“Clarke, Anya and I are closest to the cooling system on level 6 we’ll take this one out, you guys try and get the one on level 5. Monty and Octavia should be able to hit the one on the Prison Level before they come up.” Lexa’s words were sharp and clear her orders quick and precise.

“That’s might be a problem Lexa” Octavia said sounding worried.

“Why?” Lexa asked as she felt an intense rumbling in the mountain.

“Because it looks like they opened a door to the lava chamber. We have a shitload of fast moving lava coming right for us.” Monty said doing his best to stay calm but not quite achieving it.

“Allright forget the cooling chamber just get up to this floor. Any stairwell except C.” Lexa said as a group of soldiers came around the corner and opened fire on her and Anya. The rapid impacts of the bullets made Lexa drop to the ground. Anya was quick to respond sending two arrow straight at the oncoming soldiers. The first two fell with arrows in their throats.

“Anya, explosive arrows at the roof.” Lexa yelled and Anya was quick to obey slinging her explosive arrow skywards. It hit the roof and exploded, bursting oopen several pipes causing a torrent of water and fire extinguisher chemicals to rain on the soldiers. There was something else in the chemical rain because the soldiers started to scream in pain as their skin melted and bubbled. It was awful. The screams were so bad that Anya sent an explosive arrow into the group, silencing the screams.

Attacking the cooling rooms was the first major step. Overheating the facility would allow the more volatile chemicals to react and explode. It was the easiest way to destroy the facility. They just had to fight their way to the surface. Lexa reached the door to the cooling room and kicked it open. Leading the way inside Lexa was tackled by a woman standing inside and punched with a flaming fist across her jaw, shaking her brain.

The woman was another of the burning soldiers that they had almost become accustomed to fighting. Lexa was flat on her back taking powerful punches but the woman hadn’t known that Anya was right behind her.

Anya had sprinted in and delivered a swift powerful kick to the burning woman’s jaw. The kick had sent her sprawling and she ignited her arms and legs throwing herself at Anya. The Pink Ranger was quickly back peddling, deflecting the flaming punches while Lexa pulled herself to her feet.

As Anya parried another blow Lexa came from behind, grabbed the burning woman on her shoulders and hurled her bodily across the room into one of the four large cubes of coolant pipes. The fire mixed with the coolant and sent a massive spray of steam through the room.  Lexa and Anya watched the billowing clouds closely waiting for the burning soldier to come at them again.

There was a bright flare in the steam and from the thick clouds the burning soldier came racing towards Lexa entirely on fire. The sheer speed and power that she lunged Lexa knocked her to the ground. She inhaled and Anya gave her a swift kick under the chin knocking her head up and causing the stream of fire from her mouth to strike a second cube of cooling pipes.

Lexa slammed her fists into the area where the ears would be, rattling the fiery woman and causing her head to temporarily extinguish itself. That moment was enough for Lexa to land a powerful punch to the nose of her enemy causing a spurt of lava blood which sizzled down her face. The screams gave Lexa the opportunity to roll aside and draw her longsword and Dragon Dagger.

Weapons drawn Lexa charged at her opponent who tried to fend her off with a stream of fire. Crossing her blades as a shield Lexa deflected the stream of fire as it continued to pour forth with intensity.

Anya used this moment to send an arrow straight into the centre of the flaming woman. The explosive attached blew the flames on her body away leaving her just a singed woman with no power allowing Lexa to drive her blade through her heart.

Lexa and Anya were panting with the intensity of the battle with the burning woman after the non-stop combat they had been in since they burst out of their cells. They had not stopped and if they wanted to survive they wouldn’t have a chance to stop until it was all over. They set about finishing destroying the cooling units and coolant pipes that had survived the short but intense fight.

“Fuck this is tough.” Anya panted.

“Five floors to go Anya” Lexa said, “You ready for it?”

“With everything I have left.” Anya said and the two girls headed back into the corridors swarming with soldiers.

…

“Oh shit,” Octavia said as she dragged Monty back around the corner they had just turned. They were somewhere on Level 4 looking for the coolant room and they had just run into twenty soldiers that had set up a barricade.

As Monty was still reeling from Octavia’s sudden change in direction he saw a rocket shoom down the hallway, slamming into the wall and exploding. Monty was trying to keep his panic under control, it had been getting steadily worse all day. Octavia could feel it and was worried about him.

Octavia dropped her face mask letting Monty look her straight in the eye. She kept her gaze steady not revealing just how tired or worried she really was. Things had been so intense with such limited time to help Monty get more used to combat. Clarke and Octavia had had nearly a year as Power Rangers to get used to fighting. The three from Polis had all had to fight and struggle to survive and they were getting used to having to fight harder than ever. Monty was a tech nerd but loveable and they needed him.

“Monty, I know this is hard, we were  all new and inexperienced at one point. Right now we just need to keep moving straight up. Four floors and we are out. Are you with me?” Octavia said, keeping her voice steady and eyes kind. She knew Monty would need help to reach his true potential as a Power Ranger, they just needed to get through today.

“Ok” Monty said nodding.

“Great now I need a way around them to the cooling room” Octavia said, keeping Monty’s mind busy while still keeping them moving towards their overall goal. If they could get around this roadblock without having to go through it would be much better for Monty.

“That’s the bad news. They are standing right in front of the door to the cooling room.” Monty said, feeling the unspoken pressure. He wouldn’t be much use in a fight and Octavia would struggle to take down that kind of firepower alone.

“Ok Monty, then we just need to go through them. What can we do?” Octavia asked, staying here was a bad plan. They needed to keep moving especially with the increase in explosions from the lower levels.

Monty took a look around the corner at the barricade and leant back to start thinking. Octavia stood there letting the man think. As impatient and wired from combat as Octavia was she would have a lot of trouble dealing with twenty heavily armed soldiers. It might even be impossible.

“There’s a bunch of pipes above them, shoot them to release the coolant gases and create a smokescreen. It will give us a chance to start.” Monty said.

“Or they could just start firing blinding down the hallway that we would be coming from.” Octavia said, looking deeper, looking for safer tactics.

“That’s true. What other options do we have? Our armour will protect us from the standard bullets they use.” Monty said raising his daggers.

“Not enough other options to make this safe enough.” Octavia said.

“We are inside a mountain that’s being turned into a volcano fighting hundreds of armed soldiers with axes and knives, exploding the levels of the facility as we go and you’re thinking about safe?” Monty asked incredulously.

“You’re right it sounds fucking crazy” Octavia said chuckling. “Well it’s not getting any safer sitting here, let’s go.”

Monty nodded and Octavia stepped out and opened fire on the pipes above the gathered soldiers. The gases that were released mixed together and caused massive billowing clouds of super-heated steam. The soldier’s screams set Octavia’s teeth on edge and caused Monty to hesitate.

“Monty right now, I can’t coddle you. I need you to get in here and help” Octavia said, it was harsh but she needed to have another Ranger watching her back.

“Fuck, right sorry” Monty said as he leapt into the fray. The soldier’s screams were quickly being silenced, it was merciful. Octavia knew that even though they were ending their suffering it would still weigh heavily on their minds and conscience because they had put them into this situation.

As they carved their way through the twenty soldiers through the heated steam they were getting progress reports from the others. They were encountering soldiers all over the place but causing the fire system to activate had seemed to drive out most of the lava golems. They were still finding the occasional Burning Soldier made of pure fire. Nobody had seen any of the higher ranking people as they worked upwards but it was only a matter of time until they found them. Octavia just hoped that they found Cage and the others before they ran into whatever trap they had set up.

Bursting into the coolant room they found no resistance which caused Octavia to exhale in relief and slump against the wall for a moment of rest.  Monty got started destroying the coolant systems, unbuckling some pipes and rearranging them. Monty looked over and saw Octavia leaning against the wall and panting.

“Are you ok Octavia?” Monty asked suddenly concerned.

“Yeah I’m just taking a moment to rest while you do your thing,” Octavia said trying to shrug it off as nothing. She was tired. So tired because she was trying to keep Monty out of the fighting as much as possible. Monty had dropped his visor while he was working with the pipes and Octavia saw the guilt on his face for a brief moment before it changed into fear.

Octavia turned towards the door and saw what had Monty so scared; a woman in a red lab coat, glasses and black hair. The woman created a sword of fire as she advanced slowly towards them.

“You Rangers have caused all sorts of trouble. We were even willing to let you join us but your actions have caused irreparable damage to this facility, unfortunately you are too late. The volcano will be ready in less than an hour it cannot be stopped. It was however, suggested that we hunt you down and personally destroy all six of you.” The woman said.

“Like that is going to happen” Octavia said pushing aside any and all thoughts of tiredness to meet this new challenge head on. “I’ve taken on multiple of you Burning Soldiers on my way up here, be nice to add another one to the list.”

“I am Doctor Lorelei Tsing, third in command of Mount Weather and the creator of the Burning Soldiers. You would not have a chance against me at full strength but the constant fighting has you exhausted. This will be over quickly.” Tsing was arrogant but Octavia could feel like it was warranted.

“Well then, come and have a go then. Bitch” Octavia said raising her axe in challenge. Monty also raised his daggers ready to fight one of the toughest opponents they had faced.

…

Clarke and Lincoln were aiming for the Level 3 cooling room but were forced to take multiple detours on their run. The destruction of the cooling rooms was having a serious impact. The corridors they wanted were burning or collapsed and one had lava running across it. They would not need to destroy many more cooling rooms.  As they reached their target Raven’s voice came over the radio.

“Hey we have a problem out here. You know those lava golems that you haven’t seen since you set off the fire system? I just found them” Raven said sounding slightly nervous.

“What’s your issue? Just use the zords to stop them” Anya said over the comms.

“That’s the issue. They can’t use the zords.” Clarke said.

“What? Why not?” Anya’s voice was disbelieving. “How did they _get_ the zords there if they can’t use them?”

“Becca did most of the work, we just provided the connection” Niylah said. The zords needed a Power Ranger in armour to access all of their abilities. Becca using a link created by Raven and Niylah was able to control the zords enough to move them to Mount Weather.

“Who is closest to the surface?” Clarke asked.

“Monty and Octavia are a floor above us” Lexa said.

“We are currently fighting Doctor Tsing. She is kicking our arses, might need to be your team Lexa.” Octavia said panting, evidently in intense combat.

“Lexa, you and Anya get to the surface, stop the golems from getting to the city.” Clarke said but the sight of someone walking towards them in a red suit stopped her thoughts in their tracks; Cage Wallace was advancing towards them, suit on fire and arrogant smile on his face.

Lincoln growled at the sight of the man who had tortured him and tricked him into revealing his identity. The sword in his hand seemed to glow with similar feelings. Clarke hated what this man had done to them, but for Lincoln it was personal.

“Clarke, let’s fucking get this guy” Lincoln’s voice, rage filled and venomous hatred was surprisingly level; no shaking no quavering. Lincoln’s anger was a sight to behold Clarke thought and made a mental note to never make him angry.

“Lexa, Anya it’s just you two between Polaris District and the golems. Get out there but be careful” Clarke said as Lincoln’s patience gave out and he charged at Cage roaring.

Lincoln’s blade was intercepted by a sword made of fire that Cage summoned. The speed and strength of the burning soldiers that they had previously encountered was missing for the moment as Lincoln’s charge and anger gave him speed and strength. Cage had created a powerful foe when he had drugged and beaten him.

Within four strikes Lincoln had gotten through Cage’s guard and with a mighty swing cut through his flaming arm. Cage didn’t even flinch which caused hesitation in Lincoln which left him open for a fist of flame to catch him square in the chest sending him flying across the hallway to slam heavily into a wall leaving a Lincoln sized crater.

Free from the intense assault for a moment the hand on the floor that Lincoln had cut off turned into fire and reattached itself to Cage’s arm. Cage suddenly turned entirely into fire and disappeared before Clarke felt a hit like a sledgehammer to her back and was flung forwards, sliding along the ground.

“Do you really think we would make every single Burning Soldier equal? Doctor Tsing and I have power that far exceed those of the lowly soldiers you have faced so far. As the Volcano gets closer and closer to completion we will get even stronger. You never stood a chance” Cage said as he laughed mockingly.

Clarke and Lincoln got to their feet and charged at Cage together, he created another sword and blocked both of their attacks. There was a flash of fire and Cage appeared behind them striking out with his swords. Clarke and Lincoln turned and barely blocked his attack.

Turning the sword aside Lincoln lashed out with a kick at the ankle which turned to fire, causing him to overbalance and receive a flaming uppercut. Clarke meanwhile took advantage of Cage’s attack to slam the hilt of her sword into Cage’s shoulder which stayed solid under the impact but Cage shrugged off the impact and back handed Clarke to the ground.

The two rangers pulled themselves to their feet as Cage just laughed at them. He was so certain of his enhanced powers being able to easily crush them he was going to toy with them. Clarke felt that he might just be right.

…

Lexa and Anya could he the other Rangers struggling against their opponents. It was hurting Lexa to leave Clarke and Lincoln alone against Cage and Monty without much combat experience against Tsing. It seemed that this battle was turning into a batlle of priorities.

“Lexa please. Stop the golems and then come back and help.” Clarke said knowing what Lexa was thinking and how much it would be tearing her up.

“Lex, one thing at a time” Anya said. They had known each other so long that Anya knew that when Lexa was faced with multiple choices especially with emotional connections she wanted to do everything at once but couldn’t decide and ended up falling into a panic.

“Right, yes Golems then Clarke.” Lexa said to herself. They reached a ladder up a narrow shaft with bursts of steam bursting across it. The map said it would take them all the way to the exit. Lexa started climbing with Anya quickly following. The explosions deep within the facility were getting more powerful causing the whole narrow shaft to shake with debris falling onto them from above. Climbing the ladder the heat was oppressive, Lexa felt sweat pour down her back.

Bursting out through the hatch at the top Lexa was expecting the oppressive heat to disappear. They had been underground for so long that it was the middle of the night but instead of the cool night air they were met with a night so hot and dry that it felt like the smallest spark would set off a wildfire across the mountain.

Looking towards the lights of Polis there was an ominous orange glow that signalled the location of the lava golem army. Anya raced to the five zords assembled and Lexa noticed that hers was not present. It was too tied to the flute to be piloted without it. Lexa raised the flute to her lips and let instinct guide her fingers play the summoning melody.

As the notes floated into the air they were soon mingling with a mechanical roaring. Lexa saw a pinprick of light in the sky that was descending rapidly towards them. The zord landed with an earth shaking slam and Lexa gasped in awe at the legendary Dragonzord.

The zord was majestic, it towered over the other zords because it stood upright. Most of its body was a beautiful emerald green with some silver accents and golden spikes and chest plate. Across the back was a pair of deep emerald wings connected to two powerful jet engines giving it the ability to fly. Despite the dire situation Lexa couldn’t help but admire the legendary zord that was her to command.

“Lexa I know it’s impressive, but get in we have a job to do.” Anya said as her Pterodactyl zord hovered next to the Dragonzord.

Lexa played a few notes and the zord reached down, allowing her to step onto its outstretched hand to be lifted to the cockpit.  She slid the Dragon Dagger into the slot in the console and the instruments came to life and a cable attached to her Ranger armour allowing Lexa to combine her thoughts and the controls to pilot her zord. Lexa smiled as she ignited the rocket engines allowing her zord to take off.

“Race you” Lexa said as she slammed her controls forward and the Dragonzord responded by rocketing forwards towards the ominous glow of the lava golem army. The two flying zords raced through the air and reaching the army about two kilometres away from the main city of Polis attacking a small group of buildings.

People were running about between the buildings with flashes of gunfire as the people in the cluster of buildings struggled to defend themselves. Anya opened up with a series of laser blasts at the rear of the army as Lexa landed the Dragonzord in the centre of the building cluster. Upon landing Lexa was able to tell that it was an army base and turned on the external speakers.

“Evacuate the base, we’ll take it from here” Lexa’s voice boomed out and most of the soldiers raced to follow her instructions. Many soldiers remained though, trying to fight.

“You are brave and strong but this battle is beyond you, please give us room to battle like we need to.” Lexa yelled frustrated at the stubbornness of the soldiers, couldn’t they understand that a battle with zords was brutal and dangerous.  A quick count told Lexa that there was about thirty soldiers still fighting the lava golems.

Lexa gritted her teeth and opened fire on the centre of the crowd of golems with the lighter machine guns on her zord. If the soldiers wouldn’t move she would just have to fight around them, even though she was itching to send missiles into the crowd. As her rounds shredded dozens of the monsters she saw the monsters overwhelm the soldiers one group at a time; fucking stubborn men with guns. They were being slaughtered and Lexa couldn’t save them. If she hadn’t delayed leaving the mountain they might have caught up to the golems before the base, the deaths of these soldiers was her fault. She now felt like she understood why Clarke had tried to walk away.

Lexa heard the screams as the soldiers got overrun and burned by the golems, their screams would haunt Lexa for years to come. Stuck in her cockpit with no way to help them without putting them at further risk. The golems were starting to crawl over the Dragonzord and Lexa saw the external heat gauge start to climb. Slamming the rocket thrusters to max she sent her zord flying into the air and started to roll over rapidly sending golems flying everywhere and causing them to shatter upon impact with the ground. Swooping in from another angle Lexa sent a dozen rockets into the group smashing dozens of golems. With the soldiers out of the way as sad as it was gave her and Anya the freedom they needed to destroy the golems with ease.

The golems weren’t very smart but even they had even sense to realise that they were being slaughtered with no hope of survival so they started to scatter. Lexa and Anya swung around and chased down the stragglers. It was made easier by their bright glow highlighting their location in the darkness. It didn’t take long with the speed of their zords; as Lexa landed her zord on the last one there was the sound of a massive explosion from Mount Weather. The top of the mountain had blasted open and was spewing fire everywhere.

Lexa’s thoughts immediately went to Clarke and the other rangers still inside the mountain, she slammed all her thrusters to maximum and flew faster than ever to get to the mountain.

…

Octavia scooped up her axe, turned and with an angry scream brought it down through the flaming whip that was wrapped around Monty, pinning his arms to his side. The whip was sliced clean in two and the half that had been wrapped around Monty fizzled out letting him move and breathe properly.          

Dr Tsing gave a noise of irritation and with a flick of her wrist and a flash of fire the whip was back to its previous length and the blazing woman was advancing on them once again.

As Octavia stood and prepared herself for another onslaught she felt the mastodon spirit anchor itself, and she realised that the more experienced rangers had such mastery over the spirits that gave them their power they didn’t think about it. The spirits could enhance their abilities and strength but were often dangerous; channelling the power of a prehistoric beast was risky. There was no other option in Octavia’s mind though, Monty had to draw out the spirit of the saber tooth or they were doomed.

“Monty can you feel the saber tooth spirit inside you? It should be there, waiting, tense and coiled. I need you to find it and release it” Octavia said. If she told him about the risks, he might be too scared to find it but if he lost control it would be very difficult to get the spirit back under control. Without proper training Monty couldn’t keep up in the intense combat against these super soldiers so they needed to take desperate measures.

“Found it, now what?” Monty asked as he threw himself to the side to avoid another lash of the flaming whip.

“Just imagine that it’s in a cage and open the door” Octavia knew it was very vague and hurried but she was trying to instruct on the fly, quick and dirty lessons would have to do. There was a feral growl through her headset and she knew that Monty had succeeded, now all they had to do was survive the raw power unleashed.

Monty’s armour glowed brighter as he roared and charged. He was fast and aggressive; recklessly so. The fire whip lashed out, flashing with fire as it hit Monty over and over but he ignored it. His daggers left golden trails through the air as he made wide sweeping slashes that left deep wounds in Doctor Tsing that bled lava. The furious assault continued and with each drop of lava spilled her skin turned darker and more stone like. With a few final slashes Doctor Tsing’s body turned to stone and was shattered. Octavia breathed a sigh of relief that was quickly silenced as Monty turned to face her.

“Oh fuck,” Octavia said as she turned and ran, the unleashed saber tooth spirit was hungry for any sort of fight and Octavia knew just where it could find something.

…

Clarke dove aside to avoid another series of fireballs. Cage was just too powerful; their swords went straight through him and he was teleporting around the room and filling it with so much fire even as the facility was being destroyed. The sound of the flames crackling in thr room almost covered up the sound of her radio struggling into life.

“Clarke, good news we got rid of Tsing, bad news Monty released his spirit and lost control. We’re coming to you” Octavia was panting heavily as she spoke, and Clarke could hear a deep growling echoing through her mic.

“Lincoln, when Octavia and Monty get here, stay away from Monty. I’ll explain once it’s all over.” Clarke said as she dragged herself up and away from the door that Octavia was about to come through.

As tired as she was she threw herself at Cage again, sword passing through his body twice as he just laughed in her face. He grabbed Clarke’s arm with a red hot hand making her yell as the heat burnt her arm through her armour before tossing her across the room.

Octavia burst into the room and kept running, right past Cage who watched in surprise as she ignored him.

“Oh wow look at the scared little Power Rangers all running away from me.” Cage said with cruel laughter before he was slammed into from behind by Monty.

Clarke has seen a ranger lose control of their spirit before and could recognise it now. She hoped Lincoln could see the difference too. Monty’s armour was glowing brightly with an aura around his armour. The aura was in the shape of a sabre tooth tiger, giving him wicked claws on his hands and feet and a fierce tiger head with long fangs around his own.

Cage stood from the hit looking surprised at Monty “What are you supposed to be? The glowing ranger?” Cage asked mocking tone in his voice. The sneer on his face dropped slightly when the only response he got was an animalistic growl. Cage turned his hands into fire as Monty charged towards him with a roar.

“Look away this isn’t going to be pretty” Octavia said. She had seen first hand just what sort of damage the spirit released could do. She could only hope that Monty wouldn’t remember all the details of this little rampage but it was what they had needed to do to survive.

Clarke turned her eyes away as she heard Cage’s mocking voice turn to screams. Monty’s roars and snarls and growls reflected some pain but they couldn’t drown out Cage’s screams as the claws and fangs tore through him.

“That’s Monty? The sweet little nerd? I think I’m going to be sick” Lincoln said, he hadn’t taken his eyes off the fight if it could be called that. In less than a minute Cage was lying on the floor, massive slashes opened all over him as he bled lava onto the floor and Monty standing over him looking at the three Rangers like they were his next target.

“That’s mostly Monty. Stay out of it Octavia and I will get him back, we’re going to need your help to carry him.” Clarke said, and she looked at Octavia, smoke curling off her armour in a few places Clarke doubted she looked any better. The last Ranger team had learned to use their spirits but had built in a failsafe in case they lost control. Octavia and Clarke as two members of the original team knew exactly where it was; the back of the neck.

Octavia charged ducking under Monty’s angry swipe and ramming her shoulder into his stomach, knocking him off balance. Clarke took a run in and tried to slam her fist down on the back of his neck but missed, hitting his shoulder instead. With a snarl Octavia was pushed back and Clarke had to duck under the ferocious backhand.

Clarke threw a left hook and struck Monty on the hip unsettling his balance as she swept her legs underneath him knocking him over onto her. Clarke caught him and held his arms as he roared in her face. The roar was cut off when Octavia slammed her fist down on the spot on the back of the neck; forcing the spirit back to where it was sealed. As expected Monty couldn’t handle the sudden transition and he fainted.

The mountain rumbled, and the three rangers looked at each other in sudden understanding; they really needed to get out.

“Lincoln grab Monty, we need to move.” Clarke said as she took off running to the nearest way up and out of the facility. They were exhausted, they had been fighting and running nearly constantly for a long time. Clarke was surprised when they reached the entrance and found it was the dead of night. As the three of them left the underground facility they saw Raven and Niylah.

“It’s about time you four, got out of there.” Raven said, we brought the zords in case you needed them, Lexa and Anya said they are just cleaning up the last of the golems. I assume this was a victory?”

“We never found Dante, but yeah his army is gone, all his followers and his entire facility are done. If he comes back, he won’t have much support.” Clarke said as she let exhaustion overcome her and fell to the ground. Her respite was short lived when the mountain started to shake ever harder and the peak exploded into a massive burst of lava.

In that lava explosion was a giant red monster: Dante.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we go, one more chapter of this arc...Megazord time. And considering that these guys have never actually had six zords it could be fun. Anyway I have one chapter left of my AI fic so I'm going to finish that one before I come back to this one. Apologies for the great delays but hopefully you are enjoying it, or at least appreciating the wild ride. Comments make me super giddy check me out on tumblr at Serenity-Searcher if you feel like it. Working on adding some edits and stuff for this fic...as soon as I can find a decent editing program.
> 
> Anyway love you all hope you enjoy it, please let me know if it's too messy to keep up with and read.


	11. Dante's Inferno 7: Supernova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante has risen in the form of a massive molten giant. It's time for some zord combat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See this fic is still getting written :) I also just found out i have a twitter friend who reads and loves it and just that bit alone is amazing to know. I'm so happy to keep sharing this with you all. Hope you enjoy it.

**_Dante’s Inferno 7: Supernova_ **

Lexa was starting to panic, the mountain had exploded and from within was coming a huge monster that looked like it was made of liquid fire. The bright orange liquid formed a vague humanoid shape, huge slabs of earth bubbled to the surface of the body creating a sort of armour over the chest and arms. The head looked like an angular, vicious bird with a long hooked beak and two curled horns. The eyes were deepest black, lacking any sort of empathy, pity, remorse or even humanity.

“Clarke! Clarke, Monty, Octavia, Lincoln, anybody hearing me?” Lexa screamed down her radio but all she got was static until Anya’s voice sounded in her ear.

“Lexa, calm down, it’s a volcanic eruption, it messes with radios. There’s too much material in the air, the signal doesn’t get through. They are fine” Anya said before Lexa’s barely controlled panic burst through.

“They were in a mountain that just exploded and formed a giant monster. How the fuck can you be so calm about it?” Lexa yelled, she had been keeping her fear contained while they hunted down the army of golems, but now facing a giant monster and with uncertainty over the fate of Clarke and the other Rangers it was escaping and taking over.

“Lexa, right now we need to focus. If something bad has happened to them you know exactly who to blame and are inside a giant mechanical dragon. Take a breath, remember what Clarke and Niylah have taught you.” Anya was worried about the others but even more worried about Lexa right now. Lexa had been through a lot and had a fragile emotional state for so long since Costia but Natblida Dojo, then becoming a Ranger and meeting Clarke all seemed to be bringing her security and confidence back. The thought of losing any of her new friends, Clarke in particular was tearing her apart.

“He is fucked” Lexa said slamming her controls forward, rocketing forward and the second she was in range opened fire with her guns and rockets. The weapon fire slammed into the monsters shoulder causing him to turn towards her and Lexa just flew into the shoulder causing the monster to spin. As the monster shrieked and let loose a stream of fire Lexa took her zord out of range and looked back at the minimal damage her attack had caused. Lexa snarled as she turned around and prepared to come back for another pass.

As the monster turned to face Lexa, Anya came in with an attack run firing pink lasers into the back of the monster which screeched and turned to meet Anya’s charge, knocking the Pterodactyl zord off its line and sending it towards the ground.

Watching a close friend of her get struck down just slammed through the last wall holding back her fear and panic broke through. Her panic quickly gave way to fear then anger and she opened fire with her weapons as she screamed her rage. She was not going to stop until this monster was in pieces for hurting her friends.

…

Clarke hit the button to retract Monty’s helmet, so she could try and wake him up. Once his helmet was removed Clarke saw the soot and minor burns that had gotten through, his face even unconscious showed complete exhaustion. The rest of the rangers couldn’t be much better, and they still had a flaming giant to take care of.

Clarke retracted her helmet and started working on trying to revive Monty. As she worked she saw the Dragonzord firing recklessly at close range to the giant. Lexa was acting without thought and she needed help.

“You two get in your zords and help the others, Octavia get Anya, you’ll be faster since you know how the safety precautions built in, Lincoln help Lexa, we won’t be far behind you.” Clarke heard the others run off the their nearby zrods as she ran her hands along Monty’s head checking for any injuries. After finding nothing that would have kept Monty unconscious for long Clarke exhaled in slight relief; finally, something hadn’t fucked up today.

Monty groaned as he returned to consciousness and looked around to see where he was. His eyes fell on Clarke and he visibly relaxed even though the air was filled with smoke, fire, ash and gunfire the sight of a friendly face must have been a godsend to him.

“I don’t really have time to explain what Octavia got you to do; I know that it must be messing with you and its going to be hard but right now we have one last task. You ready to zord it up?” Clarke asked extending her hand to help Monty to his feet.

“I don’t have any choice, do I?” Monty asked.

“Not at this moment” Clarke said with a sad expression which she quickly hid by bringing her helmet back up over her head.

“Let’s make like a hero then” Monty said as he brought his helmet back up and followed Clarke to their zords.

…

Lexa ducked instinctively as she piloted her zord downwards to dodge a blast of fire from Dante’s mouth. Her throat was raw from the intensity of her screams. The barrage of gunfire seemed to have had limited impact on the giant, her desperate desire to avenge her friends looked doomed to failure. Her gaze was drawn to the long sleek red shape of the Tyrannosaurus zord that Lincoln was piloting and voices finally came through into her ears. These two factors calmed Lexa slightly allowing her to focus on the battle at hand. With a suddenly focused gaze Lexa noticed that the area joining the right arm to the torso had less rock covering it, leaving a solid strip of lava to aim for.

“Lincoln, can you grab onto its right arm?” Lexa asked with a plan in mind and enjoying far more than she would ever admit that hearing Lincoln’s voice that Lincoln’s voice came through her earpiece.

“Got it Lexa” Lincoln replied and his zord took a running leap and latched it’s jaws onto the right arm around the elbow and the monster turned to look at the zord that looked tiny compared to the monster is was currently dangling off. “Lexa whatever you are doing, better do it fast I think he’s kind of angry” Lexa could hear the uncertainty in Lincoln’s voice.

Lexa flipped a few switches and loaded the missiles in the claws of her zord and locked on to the exposed area and let loose with the ten missiles. The missiles schoomed through the air and embedded themselves in the exposed lava and detonated. The multiple explosions in the exposed ‘flesh’ and the weight of the tyrannosaurs zord combined to tear the arm straight from the body.

The wound formed by the removal of the arm was glowing brightly and liquid lava was leaking from it and it suddenly was bombarded by blue lasers. Lexa spun the Dragonzord to look in the direction the blasts came from and she saw Anya’s Pterodactyl zord flying proudly through the skies once again.

“Yeah take that you molten hunk of shit” Anya yelled in excitement and anger. Anger at the monster that had almost killed her with a single swipe but excitement at being back in the air.

Lexa smiled at her friend’s outburst of emotion, happy to see that she was safe and then she saw the black mastodon, yellow sabre tooth tiger and the blue triceratops come charging in together. For the first time in generations the six rangers and their zords were together again.

The monster roared as the rangers lined up against it, ready for the final battle against Dante Wallace and his Mt Weather volcano. Lexa realised that she had no idea how to lead this team in this situation, she needed Clarke to take the lead once again. Swapping to a private channel to talk to only Clarke Lexa let her fear and uncertainty show to the girl she trusted so much and needed more than anyone in that exact moment.

“Clarke, I can’t take the lead. I need your help” Lexa said her voice wavering with uncertainty.

“I understand Lexa. I’ll help you become the leader you are meant to be” Clarke said on the private channel and then swapping back to the channel that could talk to the whole team. “Allright rangers lets get this done” Clarke’s voice came through, there was something different when she took charge. It felt like all the fears, regrets and doubts faded away from Clarke in that exact moment letting her focus on exactly what needed to be done.

…

Clarke had taken charge of the situation, she was used to people counting on her and it felt right to be here with everyone together facing down a giant monster.

“Teams of two, come at it from different angles. Anya, Lexa use the air come at it from behind, Octavia, Lincoln from the left, Monty you’re with me.” Clarke ordered, and the rangers leapt into action and Clarke had to cut off her mic so she could laugh. Despite everything she felt like there was no other place in the world she would rather be at that moment. It was a strange feeling and one she would have to think more on later. Right now, they had a giant monster made of lava and rock to kill and Clarke had zero ideas as to how.

The monster reached down and grabbed the arm that had been ripped off placed the end at the open wound and with a sizzling sound reattached it and lashed out at the charging zords.

The weapon in the zords were firing constantly and causing limited damage. The occasions that they did damage caused globs of lava to be flung into the air, with the potential to damage zords if they were hit.

Clarke sat in her cockpit letting instinct guide her at the controls while she searched her mind and the data stored in the Blue Ranger to try and come up with a solution. Flipping her channel to the others standing outside Clarke let out a shout for assistance.

“Raven, Becca, ALIE, I have no idea how to bring this thing down. I need help.” Clarke needed more help than just fighting this monster, it was why she had run away in the first place but she had been drawn right back.

“ALIE, can you show me a holographic image of all the zords abilities?” Raven asked. “There’s a lot of stuff here Clarke, do your best while I try to find something useful.”

“Got it,” Clarke said swapping her mic back to the others. It had been a really good idea that the rangers helmets could pick up multiple channels like Clarke was taking full advantage of at the moment; a channel with all the other rangers, one to ALIE and Raven, and the private channel to Lexa which she had left open.

“Octavia’s zord has a freezing breath, why not try that?” Raven said slightly distracted as she looked over generations of data trying to find something else useful.

“Worth a shot, Octavia try using the freezing breath of your zord, treat it like a big golem” Clarke said and the Mastodon quickly ran in closer while the T-Rex, Triceratops and Sabretooth moved to the opposite side to distract Dante while Octavia’s zords sprayed a huge gust from freezing air from the trunk.

The cold air lashed around the leg and the cherry glow of the lava dulled until it was barely there beneath the rock. Moments later a set of Lexa’s missiles were launched at the frozen leg blasting it apart. The cheers of the rangers were cut short when instead of toppling over and being reduced to one leg the monster merely screamed, breathed fire over the ruined of its leg and they watched in horror as the monster regrew its leg.

“Well that’s just not fucking fair is it?” Anya said as Dante or the monster recovered, “How the hell is this thing supposed to die when it can just reignite it’s fire? They don’t die when on fire.”

“They must have some sort of core that keeps the fire burning, if we take that out we could probably bring it down.” Monty said as he thought through all the encounters they had had over the past day.

“So, we just need to smash it to pieces and find the core?” Octavia said as she froze the monster’s leg again for another set of missiles from the Dragonzord to shatter it again. The monster took a few moments to repair its leg and the rangers used those moments to back up and regroup.

“Anyone got any bright ideas?” Clarke asked as the monster reared up and sent a wave of fire towards them with a ground shaking roar.

“Yeah there’s this old thing called Megazord mode. It’s supposed to be the ultimate unity of your zords. They even have a form called Mega Dragonzord so it looks like they were prepared for the times when the Dragonzord was present and times when it wasn’t.” Raven said sounding interested in learning more about the zords and their history and their construction. It was her passion working with machines and Clarke could tell she was just itching to be in a peaceful time to take a proper look at all this extra information on the zords. The most advanced machines on the planet.

“What do we have to lose. Mega Dragonzord mode, lets do it. What do we need to do Raven?” Clarke asked, her leader voice on full display.

“There should be a crystal in each of your cockpits. You grab that and stick it in the symbol for your zord in the centre of your control panel. The you hit it like a button and the zords do the rest.

“Allright Rangers, its time for some Megazord power.” Clarke said as she drew the crystal and slammed it into the symbol. Clarke could only assume the rest of the rangers had done the same thing because their zords all started shining incredibly bright in their colours and she could feel her zord rumbling beneath her.

…

Raven and Niylah watched in sheer awe as the zords all started to glow with coloured light and then started to dissolve as if they were water. The sheer technology on dislay was incredible and the humans standing outside the zords as they flowed and changed and readjusted their design to be able to combine into one zord.

The zords merged but it was obvious which zord made up which part of the new Megazord. One leg was the bright yellow of Monty’s Sabertooth with the fangs turned upwards to create a spiked boot with Clarke’s blue Triceratops making up the other leg with its horns forming the points of the spiked boot.

The torso and head was a solid red from Lincoln’s Tyrannosaurus with the black of Octavia’s Mastodon forming solid muscular arms with large strong fists at the end. The front of the torso was covered with Anya’s pink Pterodactyl forming a sort of large cockpit with open windows behind which movement could be seen of the Rangers as their cockpits merged and settled into one.

The red humanoid looking head was soon covered by Lexa’s green Dragonzord head forming a helmet as the large bat like wings settled in to place on the human shaped zord’s back with a golden armour plate sliding down over the shoulders and providing a little additional protection to the cockpit.

“That is incredible” Raven said in awe and Niylah could only nod in agreement while ALIE’s robotic face lit up in the impression of a smile.

“It has been far too long since a Ranger team created the Mega Dragonzord. This team might be able to end the cycle” ALIE said, her tinny, robotic voice sounding somewhat proud.

“I hope they do; this constant cycle has cost too many people too much” Niylah said sadly.

Raven felt left out of the discussion, not entirely sure what the cycle they were referring to was. She agreed with Niylah though, the need for Power Rangers had cost Polaris State far too much.

…

The rumbling of her zord subsided and the walls of her cockpit dissolved as her seat was moved into a large control room with three large consoles of controls. Lexa’s seat joined Clarke’s at the centre console with Lincoln and Octavia taking the console on the right with Anya and Monty on the left. The seating arrangement was strange at first appearance because with every team before Clarke’s having the Red Ranger as the leader why would the Red Ranger; Lincoln in this current iteration, be on the furthest edge of the cockpit? Lexa then realised that somehow, subconsciously during the formation of the Mega Dragonzord the zords had picked up on who the leaders of the team were.

The choice of side pairings was interesting as well but would have to wait until the battle was over. Lexa scanned the controls and felt her instincts telling her that most of the ones directly in front of her controlled movement.

“So how do you want to approach this Clarke?” Lexa asked, Clarke was more experienced as a Ranger but none of them had been in a zord like this.

“You’re the best at hand to hand combat, so you and I take the arms and legs, Monty and Anya have keen eyes so they can see what they can use to try and find the core while Octavia and Lincoln see what weapons we have, and try and keep an eye on the heat levels. Try and keep us cool in here” Clarke said, rattling off the instructions like she was used to it and nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

“Sounds like a plan,” Lexa agreed. She could see exactly why Clarke was the leader of her old team, she had a natural gift; this zord had been formed less than two minutes ago and she had already found a perfect use for every combination that had formed. Feeling completely inadequate in her position as a potential leader Lexa started to panic, her breathes coming in short and fast and her heart was pounding in her ears.

She felt a soft touch on her right hand and looked to see Clarke had made her helmet transparent, so Lexa could see her face, the concern in her eyes. The small gesture did wonders for calming Lexa and she felt her cheeks warming and was suddenly very glad that her helmet was still opaque. Right now, wasn’t the time for a girl crush or feelings, she had to focus on the molten giant staring them down.

“Let’s get this done Rangers,” Clarke said and took control of the legs advancing on Dante. Lexa brought the fists up and swung a vicious right hook into the face and a left jab to the gut. The quick sharp blows sent the giant stumbling. The monster responded with a ear splitting roar and a massive torrent of fire.

“Shield on the left arm” Octavia said and Clarke was quick to raise the left arm which was now protected by a shield in the shape of the Mastodon head. The flames curled around the shield and missed the major parts of the zord.

“Get some distance I’ve got a canon barrage coming” Lincoln said and they struck at Dante with two fists and sent him sprawling. The moment the distance was created canons on the wrists, legs, shoulders and belt extended and let loose a rapid series of blasts in all the colours of the Rangers. Dante screamed in pain as chunks of his body were blasted apart leaving it with a misshapen face and an arm dangling to the ground. With a rumble the monster coated itself in fire and repaired itself and launched itself at the Megazord.

“You guys found the core yet?” Lexa asked as she deflected a punch and retaliated with one of her own to the face. The metal and lava giants exchanged a series of blows, the heated punches raised the temperature in the zord forcing Octavia and Lincoln to work hard to use the cold air from the mastodon weapon to put out the fires and keep the temperature down.

“Got it! It’s low on the right side, buried deep,” Monty said relieve to have found the way to bring Dante down once and for all.

“Octavia got any swords in that arsenal?” Anya asked as she brought up a targeting circle on the windows of the cockpit highlighting exactly where the core was buried.

“Yeah bringing it up in the right hand now” Octavia said, and the sword formed with a wave of liquid metal like nanites creating a long blade. “It’s got a power boost as well, cranking it to maximum.”

The sword suddenly flashed and flared glowing incredibly brightly and pulsing with waves of energy. Lexa loved the look of this sword and with an experimental swing lopped of the hand of the monster. With a focused movement Lexa twirled the sword around like a practiced movement from her training with swords. As the monster roared and ignited his flames Lexa took advantage of the moment its attention wavered and struck with a deep and powerful stab right through the core.

Dante screamed loudly and with an increasing pitch as the fire inside burned out, forcing it to freeze into a statue of solid rock. With a second strike of the sword the now stone monster shattered and finally was defeated. The Rangers cheered as the saw that the stones didn’t move, and the monster hadn’t gone on a rampage in a city.

With the defeat of the monster the Mega Dragonzord powered down and separated into the original six zords allowing the Rangers to finally exhale in relief at the end of an intense battle that had lasted all day with the fighting in the complex and now the zord combat.

“I am so damn tired I could sleep for a week.” Lexa said as she powered down her armour and felt fresh air on her face. The night air was cold on her sweat soaked skin and stung on the burns she had received.

“I could too, I just need to let my mother know I’m ok, she’s bound to have seen the news that a giant monster was released. You guys let the people you care about know you are safe as well.” Clarke said opening her phone and dialling her mother’s number.

“Hey mum, were safe now, I’m exhausted and could do with a good rest at home.” Clarke said her voice revealing her utter exhaustion. The ranger powers gave them incredible strength, speed and stamina but they were still human under it all and they had been pushed to their absolute limit.

“ _Clarke? Thank heavens you’re alright. I saw the monster but it’s not the best time to come home to Arkadia right now. Pike’s not happy with the Power Rangers and Jaha is agreeing. I will do what I can to come and see you in a day or two. I can’t just walk out on work when there burn victims being transferred to Arkadia hospital. We need to keep your secret and more importantly keep you safe. I will see you as soon as I can. I love you.”_ Abby said in a quick rush.

“Love you too mum” Clarke said hanging up. She turned her tired eyes on the rest of the Rangers. “Looks like it’s a few more days in Polis for me. Pike’s going crazy we should lay low for a bit, or at least I will.”

Lexa looked at Clarke and realised that there was far more to being a Power Ranger than just fighting. The Rangers all sighed and relaxed as Raven, Niylah and ALIE came up and joined them.

“Let’s head back to my place guys” Niylah said with deep understanding, she had been there numerous times before. They had a lot of talking to do, especially with what transpired today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew boy what a chapter, I'm exhausted just writing that battle can't imagine how the Rangers are feeling after that long battle. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. I've got some pictures of the map of the Polaris State and the Mega Dragonzord that will be on my tumblr at Serenity-searcher and on twitter. Hope you enjoyed it, feel free to speculate on where I go next, I love seeing it. Kudos make my day comments make my week I love you all for sticking with this.


	12. The Dark Ark: Whispers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally with a moment of peace The Rangers have a chance to relax and then they have the decision of whether or not to reveal their secret to another external person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looky its alive everyone, sorry took time off fanfic for Nanowrimo to get some work done on my OG project (a clexa based, warring clans style novel series...a lot of work still to do but I am determined to get it done). I am aiming to just chip away at my fics and novel slowly until I can sort my life and writing time out. Anyway love you all. Oh I didn't misspell the name of this arc of the story. And even added the map of the region to clear up any questions on that too. I'll also go back and put it in chapter 1 but this is all just here for those who are picking it up where we left off.

** **

** The Dark Ark: Whispers **

Clarke was lying on her bed at Niylah’s place two days after the battle of Mount Weather idly looking at the burn on her leg and marvelled at its healing progress when her phone rang with her mother’s ringtone.

“Hey mum, how’s the hospital going?” Clarke asked, Abby had said the hospital was way too swamped with injured from the recent attack, primarily soldiers from the military base that the golems had attacked.

“It’s finally calmed down enough for me to slip away, I’m coming in to the edge of Polis now, where are you staying?” Abby asked and Clarke could hear the traffic of the city as Abby drove using the hands free phone in her car.

“Umm Niylah’s boarding house, it’s on the quieter end of town. The rest of the Rangers are here at the moment, so you might see them, you might not, and try not to do anything stupid mum.” Clarke said with an exasperated sigh “you’re not far away so I’m going to go give them all some warning. I’ll explain later if you can’t work it out.” Clarke said as she hung up and set off in search of the others.

…

“You know the thing I’m going to miss most of all?” Raven asked as she knocked back her drink before turning her attention fully on Anya. It was the first time that they had both been at Niylah’s since Mount Weather and it was a nice change to talk to someone who was in the same place as her.

“Not a clue” Anya said wondering where this conversation was heading, Raven had been the Pink Ranger before her and even though the colour wasn’t her first choice there were numerous upsides amongst the heavy responsibility of being a Ranger. They had been constantly going for days and now for the first time since she became a Power Ranger Anya had some downtime and was trying to figure out how to fit her two lives into one.

“Flying in the zord, well really flying in general but the way the Pterodactyl is controlled by a combination of mind and controls, it’s truly unique and incredible” Raven said, waving her hands around as she spoke, trying to capture the extent of the sensations.

  
“I can feel that, it was amazing flying it even though it was against a giant of lava and a desperate battle I can see why you feel that way.” Anya said as she thought back to her experience in the cockpit.

“You got knocked out of the sky as well, that is terrifying and how I lost my leg” Raven said knocking her fist on her shiny new prosthetic. The new prosthetic was made of a metal that had been enhanced with a similar metal to the zords allowing it to be light and super strong, flexible and adapatable.

“Yeah, I haven’t felt anything like that before, it felt more potent than my own fear though” Anya said, recalling just how terrified she had been the moment she lost control and saw the ground rushing up to meet her.

“That’s partially my fault I think,” Ravens said, open and honest with a bit of guilt and sadness there as well plus understanding. The sheer amount of emotions that she was showing in that moment unsettled Anya, who was usually so unflappable.

“How?” Anya asked, wondering where this was going.

“The power coins are kind of sentient, they keep bits of knowledge and experience from the previous Rangers, so when you were crashing you felt all the fear and everything I felt at Hakeldama when I crashed. I’m sorry that added to what you felt” Raven said.

“That’s not your fault, far from it. It could be a way to better understand you” Anya said.

“Take me for a flight one day if you want to try and whoo me” Raven said with a smile and her attention was drawn to the door as Clarke entered. “What’s up Clarke?”

“Mum is on her way, so if you don’t want to reveal that you are a Ranger I suggest leaving the main rooms. She’s a doctor and coming to check on us and our injuries which are healing. Plus, she has news from Arkadia which I know might not interest you Anya but it didn’t sound good” Clarke said giving Anya the option to keep her secret or trust Abby. Either option made sense to Clarke.

“I’m fine either way, if the others are good with meeting her, I won’t stay hidden, if they don’t want to reveal the secret to a stranger, I’m good with that too.” Anya said, shrugging her shoulders and trying to act like she didn’t care. Clarke couldn’t get a proper read on her feelings just from her few interactions that weren’t the middle of a combat situation.

“Either of you know where the others are?” Clarke asked, checking her phone to see how long it had been since her mother had called her, wanting to find everyone before her mother arrived.

“Lincoln and Octavia said something about checking out the gym so you would probably find them there,” Anya said and Clarke headed off to see if she could find them.

…

A rapid, heavy knocking on her door woke Lexa up from her sleep, she had been staying at Niylah’s since Mount Weather. Stumbling across to the door she opened it to see Monty standing there.

“Lexa, I need your help” he said then his cheeks reddened as he realised that Lexa was barely dressed in her pyjamas, which consisted of an old loose t shirt with several holes and baggy shorts. “Oh fuck, umm sorry” Monty said as he saw way more skin of Lexa’s than he intended and quickly turned his head away.

“Not a problem Monty, what did you need help with?” Lexa asked and closed the door mostly over so Monty wouldn’t feel nearly as uncomfortable, but they could still talk while Lexa quickly got dressed.

“Could you teach me to fight?” Monty’s voice came through quickly as though he was rushing to get past the truth that he was afraid to admit. With a new shirt on Lexa leaned around the door to look at Monty.

“What do you mean?” Lexa asked clearly confused, her brain wasn’t working fine just yet having been just woken up.

“Everyone else clearly has some fighting ability, my lack of ability nearly cost us everything in Mount Weather. If it wasn’t for Octavia making me go all Sabre Tiger crazy and then Clarke bringing me back we would have lost way more. I need to learn how to fight, the daggers that came aren’t my style.” Monty’s words expressed just how scared he had been, unable to fight and then unable to control how well he fought. He was clearly still rattled from it.

“Sure, meet me in the gym? I’m sure Niylah will have a few weapons to try your hand at.” Lexa said as she decided to change her clothes into ones more suitable for training in the gym.

It was only a few minutes later that she found herself with Monty in the gym watching Niylah undo a series of locks to reveal a massive cabinet filled with dozens of weapons. The sheer array boggled Lexa and she looked over to Niylah and the older woman just shrugged before she answered.

“When you spend a few years as a power ranger you sort of get acclimatised to having weapons in easy reach, plus they were all just fun to learn.” Niylah said, grabbing a wide bladed sword and gave it a twirl smiling. “Anything catch your eye?”

“Plenty of things, but this is more for Monty anyway” Lexa said letting Monty take his time to choose a weapon he would hopefully feel comfortable with.

“I don’t know, I kind of like the staff there but that’s not really a good weapon is it?” Monty asked.

“Have you never heard of the story of the unbeaten swordsman? Well the full version?” Lexa asked, it had been a great and popular tale when she was growing up.

“Never heard of it,”

“I’ll give you the short version of the full story then. There once was a swordsman who was unmatched in skill, he won over hundred duels, and countless battles, everyone who challenged him fell. He became arrogant and cocky and eventually became the ruler of his tribe. What he had soon became insufficient and he wanted to expand, he led his armies across the land winning more battles. He came to a farm where a single man stood against him holding a stick about his size. The king was so arrogant that he challenged the man to a single duel for his land. The man accepted the challenge and the two began to fight. Their duel was short and violent with the farmer managing to easily defeat the king.” Lexa told the story and even though it was a short tale her voice had taken on a different tone.

“Wow, a farmer with a stick defeated a guy who had never been beaten in sword combat?” Monty asked incredulously.

“Yeah, just shows that even if you haven’t been beaten before there is always a chance that one opponent could bring you down. So you want to learn how to fight with the quarterstaff?” Lexa asked and smiled at Monty as he nodded.

Niylah pulled out two of the staffs from the weapon selection and tossed them to Lexa and Monty.

“So how did you want to do this Lexa?”

“Start simple, work on the basics of the staff and then work upwards. I mean we won’t get it all done today but with a few regular lessons we should make a fighter out of you yet. Ready Monty?” Lexa asked as she gave her staff a twirl. “I want to see what your style is like first, so shoes off and meet me at the mat.” Lexa said, and she followed her own instructions.

When Monty was in position on the mat and a large space had been cleared Lexa raised her staff and bowed before declaring “Defend yourself” and charged at him.

Despite the obvious difference in skill Lexa didn’t instantly defeat Monty like he was probably expecting, there was no point since she wouldn’t see any of his ability. She tested him, seeing how his instincts responded to various styles of attack; short sharp jabs at the upper body, long sweeping strikes at the legs and powerful overhead strikes.

Monty for having no real experience in fighting held up reasonably well under her attacks, his instincts were a good base although Lexa suspected that the changes to their body that the Power Coin had made were helping him along.

“Good stuff Monty, you have a pretty solid foundation to work from” Lexa said her breathing only slightly affected by the exertion while Monty was panting heavily.

“Thanks, how are you not tired?” Monty said as he was passed a water bottle and guzzled it down.

“This is what I do, I am an instructor at martial arts clubs. Well I was the instructor in Hakeldama until that town got levelled. I miss it and am trying to see if any martial arts places here in Polis would hire me, try and get a job going.” Lexa said, none of the new rangers had tried to bring up Hakeldama yet, the mission that had cost the last team so much and caused Clarke to try and walk away.

That was another thing that hadn’t been brought up; Clarke wanting to quit because of the deaths she blamed herself for. Mount Weather had been a necessary battle but even then, Lexa had watched innocents die to the monsters created by Dante and his followers. They all had physical scars they could survive but would they be able to handle the mental damage?

“Umm, Lexa are you ready to go again?” Monty asked bringing her out of her thoughts. He had settled his breathing and looked prepared for another round. Lexa smiled at her friend and started another bout.

They continued like this for close to an hour with Lexa slowly increasing the tempo and intensity of her attacks. Each time a bout ended Lexa gave Monty some tips and pointers and things to focus on in the next bout. By the end of the first hour of training Monty was starting to take the offense for a few moments which made Lexa smile.

Octavia and Lincoln walked into the gym as well, greeting Monty and Lexa as they entered and went to the weapon rack, each taking a sword. The two of them started their own sparring session, and it made Lexa smile to see her friend interacting with one of Clarke’s friends so easily. She took another look at Lincoln’s expression and noticed it got softer around the feisty brunette, she would have to give him some shit about that later.

The two pairs enjoyed a few bouts but were interrupted when Clarke knocked on the door and waited for a moment for them all to stop their training for a moment. The five people in the gym turned to the newly arrived blonde who looked like she had something to say.

“Clarke?” Lexa asked and the four rangers and Niylah looked to one of their leaders.

“Just came to say my mum will be here soon, if you want to keep the secret you can keep your privacy and we will just talk to her down in the dining room. Whatever she mentions about the problems in Arkadia will be shared with you afterwards. Just come downstairs if you want to” Clarke said with a shrug and Octavia and Niylah were quick to say they would come downstairs for it and Lincoln while slower agreed as well. It was Lincoln’s best trait, that all the crap he had been through growing up and he still trusted people as a whole and those he was closest to he trusted so much. Monty joined the group as well and that left Lexa alone hesitating on her decision.

“Anya said she would join in if you all did, but there’s no pressure Lexa. I mean it might be nice to have someone else in on the secret, someone who’s concern is not focused solely on the big picture, someone who cares about us as people.” Clarke said, she had only revealed her secret after the way her mother was talking about the Power Rangers and she couldn’t have gone through everything and have the person who was supposed to be on her side through everything hating her.

“Sure I’ll come, might be a good thing” Lexa said even though she was still being very uncertain and cautious about the whole thing.

“Abby is great, don’t worry about her. She’s a doctor too so we can get some proper medical assistance if we need it.” Octavia has known Abby for years, as well as raven the group of them having grown up together.

“We don’t have to do this if you aren’t comfortable though” Clarke said watching Lexa and seeing something holding her back.

“We do though, I’m not sure how to explain it but we need to do this. Let’s go” Lexa said, her voice wavered at the start but quickly got stronger and firmer towards the end of her sentence.

As the group started down the corridor Clarke noticed that Lexa was still slightly hesitant and reached out her hand to take Lexa’s. Lexa’s hand was warm, soft and safe and gave a squeeze in appreciation and Clarke smiled, and glanced up at Lexa’s face to see it calmed down, even wearing a small smile.

…

The Rangers, as well as Raven and Niylah all gathered around a large table in one of the more private rooms off the dining hall. Niylah’s shelter was still open and running so the other kids and teenagers that used the house were all locked out of the room while Niylah had “business stuff” to do.

Abby looked tired, there were dark circles under her eyes and the way she was sitting showed just how exhausted she was. The casualties from Mount Weather had clearly had her working incredibly hard driving her to incredible exhaustion.

“This is great, thank you for the cup of tea Niylah, this is the first chance I’ve had to really relax in days. Not that sitting down and meeting the Power Rangers and telling them of the problems starting to occur in Arkadia would count as relaxing.” Abby leant against the back of her chair and slumped down letting out a deep sigh.

“How bad is it?” Clarke asked, worried at the answer.

“Only preliminary stages at the moment but give it time and it will almost certainly become a major problem, any additional “incidents” will make it come that much faster.” Abby had made air quotes around the word incidents.

“Mum, good to see you and nice to have a catch up but please stop being so cryptic, we have all had a hell of a few days.” Clarke said, patience thin. It was nice that her mother was trying to help them all but talking around in circles wasn’t her favourite activity even if it was one of her mother’s favourite activities.

“Right, sorry Clarke, bad habit. General Pike was at the military base that the Green and Pink Rangers kind of flattened and killed 37 soldiers. His warnings going on deaf ears after Hakeldama and then this has finally gotten Mayor Jaha to listen to him. Jaha is hurting over Wells’ death and with Pike’s proposal that the Power Rangers be banned from Arkadia he was very quick to agree.” Abby said and watched Clarke, Raven and Octavia carefully for their reactions.

“We gave them plenty of warning to get out of there. It is not our fault that they died.” Lexa yelled and slammed her hands on the table. Abby was quick to put her hands up in defense.

“I know, I believe you. Pike has hated the Power Rangers for almost his entire life and he is just looking for any excuse to blame them.” Abby’s words managed to stop Lexa from losing her temper and she watched as Clarke leaned closer to the girl next to her, pulling one of her hands from the table into her lap.

“Jaha isn’t exactly the strongest willed man and he has been a total mess since Wells died. It would be easy enough to manipulate him, especially for someone like Pike.” Clarke said, she had met the man twice over her lifetime and neither time he had left her with a good feeling.

“I don’t want to burden you all with extra responsibility, but I need you to be careful. You have lost Finn and Wells and those losses are still fresh and hurting. If you, Octavia and Raven were all Rangers it stands to reason that two of your closest friends were as well. I mean I can only figure this out because I’ve met you all.” Abby said, words full of sadness at making the lives of these young adults even harder.

“Thanks Mum, how much help are you going to be able to give us?” Clarke asked.

“As much as I can, whether its medical help or inside information from my place at the hospital. You kids don’t have to do this alone.” Abby said.

The six rangers all thanked Abby for her help and with that left Clarke and Abby to have a moment on their own. Clarke and Lexa gave each other a warm smile as they finally let go of each other’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this, it is a little different from how it all started but that's come from doing other stuff and realising that there needed a little bit more interaction. Hopefully it also helped clear up a few bits of lore and background. Let me know if you are still confused about anything. Still on tumblr at Serenity-searcher for the time being also on twitter as Brendan Clexa or clexasaurus and I'm there a bit more often these days. Feel free to hit me up anywhere, would love you even more than I already do when you comment.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope that was enjoyable feel free to chuck feedback down here or chuck it my way on tumblr Serenity-Searcher. Catch you soon with the next chapter. I might be a bit all over the place wit Zord and Ranger capitalisation, if anyone knows the exact ruling on how to do it feel free to let me know.


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